DARLENE SAGA: The Prodigal Daughter: PART 2
by Storyseeker
Summary: Demona had another daughter who ran away from home before the clan awoke! Now that daughter has returned, but she has been living as a human for the past 20 years and bore 3 human children! But the spell that she cast is now wearing off. She has no choice


_**All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company.  
No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.  
All original characters are the property of Storyseeker.**_

_**Thanks to Lily, Silverbolt and Demona Taina who role-played with me to work out a few scenes! **_

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**Eyrie Building: **

"Mr Xanatos?"

"Yes Owen?"

Owen Burnett approached his employer in his usual stiff manor and spoke in his usual emotionless voice. "She is coming, sir."

David Xanatos, billionaire industrialist, gave Owen an odd look, but quickly realised about whom he was talking about when he saw the date on the calendar. "Jeez, is it that time of year again already?"

Owen just simply nodded.

"Damn it! I totally forgot all about that. Get the Gargoyles in here now! If they see her, we'll have a war on our hands, and the last thing we want is unnecessary bloodshed!"

Owen walked out of the room at fast pace, while Xanatos turned on his monitor and watched the clan's most hated foe approach the castle. "I hope you keep to your word, Demona?"

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Elisa Maza stepped out of the elevator just as Owen came rushing by.

"Whoa, Owen, where's the fire?"

Owen just raised an eyebrow at her. "As a matter of fact, it's approaching the castle this very minute."

"Huh?"

"Demona is coming!"

"WHAT? Oh shit. We'd better tell Goliath and the others before she starts blasting everyone."

"That won't be necessarily, Miss Maza. Demona has not come here to do any harm. She is merely coming here to Castle Wyvern to perform a sacred ritual of hers that she's been performing for over a thousand years now."

"A ritual?" Elisa questioned. "You mean like a spell? And since when has Demona never intended to any harm?"

"Only on this one night, every year since the massacre at Wyvern occurred." Owen said, "don't worry. I assure you that she will cause no harm because if she did then she would be placing Master Alexander in danger and Puck would be obliged to intervene."

Somehow, the fact that Puck would be willing to help them did not bring her very much comfort. Seeing as all the encounters that they had had with him had not been the best of times. She wondered why Demona was here though; if what Owen said was true about her not being here to cause trouble?

"Forgive me, Detective," Owen replied, "but we don't have a lot of time, and I have yet to inform Goliath and the rest of the clan about Demona's impending arrival. I doubt that they will be pleased to see her and will, no doubt, attack first and ask questions later."

Elisa had no choice, but to agree with that. After everything that Demona had done to them, especially what she had recently done on the Hunter's moon and almost succeeded. She definitely wasn't on the clan's Christmas list that was for sure.

Owen hurried past her and Elisa followed him.

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"Och Bronx, get off the remote will ya?" Hudson bellowed angrily at Bronx, after finding him sitting on the television's remote control.

Bronx whined, but complied with Hudson's request and shifted.

"That's better! Now to watch me…"

"HUDSON!"

Hudson jerked at the sound of his name when Lexington came bursting into the Television room, looking like he had just run a thousand miles. "Goliath said to meet him top side right now! Demona's on her way here!"

"Coming!" Hudson answered immediately and instantly drew his sword and ran after Lexington to what, he thought, would be an impending battle.

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Goliath stared at the shadowy figure, coming closer and closer towards their home.

His former love, his angel of the night now fallen from grace, was heading towards them, probably with another diabolical scheme in mind. He would never admit it to anyone, but Demona's transformation from his beloved angel to the murderous, human hating monster that they now fought, hurt him more than beyond words. Every time he saw her, he couldn't stop thinking about where he had gone wrong? What mistake did he make that lead to the birth of this monstrosity and the death of his beloved?

Every time he saw her, he felt like someone was stabbing his heart with a sword, like he had felt the night when Demona had first revealed the all new her. That night, she might as well had just taken a sword and plunged it deep into his heart, twisted it out and cut it into little pieces.

Yet at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a burning hatred of his own for her. She had been his second in command, as well as his supposedly one true love. He had trusted her more than anyone and she betrayed him and she didn't even have the heart to warn the rest of their clan about the Viking's attack.

'Damn her' he thought to himself. He had tried to reach her, time and time again, but each time, Demona had turned against them, so he finally quit trying and settled for the fact that she was simply beyond redemption.

Goliath shook himself out of his reverie and faced his charges. "Everyone prepare for battle!"

Brooklyn looked more than ready for battle. To be honest, Goliath was finding his hatred of Demona to be a little disturbing. He knew Brooklyn would make a good leader someday, but at the moment, he was young and impetuous, and his hatred of Demona easily clouded his judgement.

Lexington, who had just arrived with Hudson, was crouched on all fours, ready to spring into action when needed, and Hudson had his sword drawn with his eyes blazing.

Goliath didn't know what they both thought of Demona. Hudson was practically their father, as he had helped raise them, along with the rest of their rookery kin back in the old days. He had once been mighty fond of him and Demona when they were hatchlings, because he could see in them the potential to be great warriors. He had spent years training them, and thus they had grown into two of the best warriors of the clan. Hudson had kept quiet about Demona's betrayal ever since they had first found out, but Goliath suspected that, like him, the revelation was heart breaking.

As for Lexington, he doubted that the little Gargoyle liked fighting one of his former clan sisters, but he was willing to do anything to protect this clan and this concrete isle that they had sworn to protect.

Angela was standing not too far away with Broadway at her side. He knew how deeply she wanted to be close to her mother, but he had told her long ago that they must have nothing to do with her. She was far too dangerous and would most likely use her for another one of her plans, as she had done when she had tricked them into locking her in the Labyrinth, only for it to turn out that it had been a ruse of hers and Thailog's. As far as he was concerned, she was no longer clan. She no longer knew the meaning of the word anymore.

Broadway was doing his best to comfort her, but Angela was a brave soul and obviously did not need it, but she rewarded Broadway by taking his paw and kissing it.

Broadway beamed at her.

"GOLIATH!"

Goliath turned at the shout of his name and saw Elisa; his clan's true friend and now his lover came sprinting up towards them with Owen by her side.

"Elisa! Get back into the castle. Demona's approaching, we can't… "

"Yes, I know! Owen told me, but he says that she hasn't come here to hurt anyone. Strange as that may seem."

Goliath stared at her, wondering if she was joking or if Demona had put a spell on he? "Elisa?"

"It's true, Goliath," Owen added. "This isn't the first time that Demona has been here to the castle like this. She's done this twice before. Once before the castle was shipped up and flown over here to New York, and again only last year while you were…away. Apparently she's been doing the same thing, every year for over a millennium now."

"And what thing has that been?" Goliath questioned.

Owen looked up. "Apparently, you're about to find out."

The clan looked up as Demona glided above them and swooped down to the high tower, where Goliath's perch was. She landed on the tower and proceeded to take out a couple of items from the bag that she wore around her loincloth. If she had noticed them, then she didn't show it.

"Look," Brooklyn growled. "She's going to cast a spell. We've got to attack now or we're all toast!" Brooklyn got ready to pounce, but paused when Angela got in his way.

"No wait!" Angela pleaded. "Let's see what she's doing first and then decide whether or not to attack?"

Brooklyn looked sick with disgust at the mention of letting their sworn enemy stay and doing whatever evil she was up to. But Goliath looked as if he agreed with Angela, so Brooklyn decided to play it smart and do as he was told.

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Demona landed on Wyvern's highest tower and preceded to remove the following items from her bag, which were a candle, a box of matches and a pink rose. She placed the candle on the battlements and struck a match to light it. After watching the candle burn for a few moments, she started to sing: -

_A fervent prayer rose up to heaven,  
A fragile soul was losing ground  
Sorting through this earthly babble,  
Heaven heard the sound.  
It was a life of no distinction,  
No successes, only tries.  
Yet, gazing down on this unlovely one,  
There was love in Heaven's Eyes._

_The orphaned child, the wayward father,  
The homeless traveller in the rain  
When life goes by and no one bothers,  
Heaven feels the pain.  
Looking down, God sees each heartache,  
Knows each sorrow, hears each cry,  
And looking up, we'll see compassion's  
Fire ablaze in Heaven's Eyes._

_In Heaven's Eyes, there are no losers,  
In Heaven's Eyes, no hopeless cause.  
Only people like you, with feelings like me  
And we're amazed at the grace we can find  
In Heaven's Eyes._

Demona had first heard and learned that song, many years ago when she had been visiting the clan in Scotland while they were still in their stone sleep. It had moved her, more than she cared to admit, and gave her comfort whenever she found herself reminiscing about the late members of her now deceased clans.

Demona blinked back the tears that were threatening to come out again after a whole year, but she quickly regained herself for a moment and picked up the pink rose. The tears started to come again, but this time, Demona didn't try to stop them. She couldn't have, even if she had tried. Every time she looked at this pretty flower, she was reminded of… her!

Demon wept.

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"What's wrong with her" Brooklyn asked? In all of their battles with Demona, he had never seen her cry before.

"I believe she's reminiscing," Owen replied.

The clan all turned to look at him, curiously.

Owen shrugged. "Demona has been visiting the castle every year since the massacre that claimed the lives of your comrades. She returns to Wyvern every year, lights a candle and sings that old Scottish hymn, in memory of your fallen members."

Goliath looked shocked. He had long ago accepted that Demona was beyond any such feelings, but if what Owen said was true, then maybe…maybe there was hope for her after all. He took a step forward to go to her, but was stopped by Owen's sharp voice.

"Goliath, I wouldn't recommend that! This is a personal and private time for Demona, one that she has always done alone. So I doubt that she would welcome your company, especially if she still considers you the one to blame for your clans destruction."

Goliath's wings flared open at Owen's remark. Although it was all Demona's fault that they had all come to be where they were, he still felt painfully guilty, considering that the human who had helped Demona was the one human that he had trusted with his life. Goliath decided that Owen was right and chose to remain where he was, observing her.

"Strange," Hudson said.

"What?" Elisa asked.

Demona had now taken a pink rose; plucked out its petals and tossed them into the air. She watched the wind take them to wherever they wanted to go, something that had instantly caught Hudson's attention.

"I wonder why Demona threw that wee flower out into the wind. Demona's act of honouring the clan's late ones is not unheard of. Many Gargoyles, whose clans were lost, chose to honour their memory in a way similar to what Demona is doing. But I've never heard of them using a flower? I have no idea as to why Demona is using it to perform this remembrance ritual of hers?"

Demona then finished what she was doing and stood up to leave. She saw the clan watching her and eyed them for a couple of minutes. The clan all braced for an attack, but was met with a further surprise when Demona just turned around and glided away.

Angela took a few steps forward and watched her mother's retreating form. There was nothing more she wanted at that precise time than to go after her mother and talk to her. But she knew that Goliath would never permit it. He would say it was too dangerous. So she stayed where she was and watched her mother's retreating form until it faded from sight.

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**Meanwhile, In Los Angeles: **

"Children! Come here!"

17-year-old Lana and 8-year-old Jarred Anderson walked through the house to the sound of their mother's voice, with 6 month old Gem in Lana's arms. They found her, waiting for them at the door to the attic.

"Hey, mom!" Jarred said cheerfully. "What's up?"

Darlene Anderson, their mother, looked at her children and sighed. This was NOT going to be easy, but then again, she had always known that it wouldn't be. She should have prepared better for it, but like a fool, she had always kept putting it off for another day until it was too late.

"Come with me, children. I have something to tell you and show you. Something I've been hiding from you. All your lives."

She turned around and unlocked the door to the attic, and walked up the stairs. The children looked at each other with looks of confusion, but followed her up anyway. The attic had always been out of bounds for them. Neither Lana nor her brother had ever gone up there without either of their parents, and when they did they were not allowed to touch anything…ever!

Lana gave a sad sigh. She had a feeling what her mother was going to tell them. Ever since their father had died just a few months ago in a car accident, the bills had been piling up. Although their mother had never said anything, she had a sneaking suspicion that they were going to lose their house, as the payment for the lease of the house was waaay over due, even before their dad's death.

As they climbed up the last few steps into the attic, the first surprise that Lana and Jarred got was the white star drawn into the attic floor. It was a star inside a circle with strange other markings, drawn both inside and outside the star and circle. Lana gave her mother a curious look, but didn't say anything. She had a feeling that she was going to tell them about it anyway.

Darlene told them to take a seat and prepare themselves.

The children did as they were told and sat down, never taking their eyes off their mother.

Darlene Anderson truly was a beauty among beauties. She was, at least, in her early forties, yet she only looked about thirty, with a strong and very pleasing body to match. She had long, white-blonde hair that covered her entire back; a lovely heart shaped face with a straight nose and high cheekbones. Her skin was a creamy white colour, and her eyes were a fantastic sparkling blue colour that made you think of clear summer skies with the stars still in them, every time that you looked at them.

Lana was like her mother in almost every way, except her eyes were brown, courtesy of her father, whereas Jarred had brown hair and eyes, a deep tan, and seemed to love getting into trouble. He did have a kind heart, though, and family was very important to him, especially since his father had past away. It made him realise how precious life was and that anything could happen. Anything at all could happen, so it was important to do what you could with the time you have left.

Gem was a beautiful baby girl with soft white skin, a fine crop of white-blonde hair, and her mother's eyes. Like all babies, she had a knack for crawling into places where she shouldn't. Last night, Jarred had supposed to be watching her and had turned his head only for a second before she crawled right into the kitchen and nearly went out the cat flap.

Darlene took another breath and gave off a huge sigh, as she was getting ready to tell her children what was, no doubt, the hardest thing that she was ever going to say.

"Alright then, first things first! Kids, do you know about those reports coming from New York about people seeing Gargoyles coming to life and the recent attack on a Police station there?"

The children looked at each other in confusion; this wasn't what they expected her to start talking about. "Err…yeah?" they all answered.

'Jesus,' Darlene thought. 'How the hell am I ever supposed to convince them of the truth?'

"Okay," she started. "Why don't we start with my past and work our way from there, okay?" The children nodded again; still unsure as to what was going on, but decided that if they were going to understand then they'd better listen.

Darlene, once again, took a deep breath and began to speak. "It all began about…75 years ago…"

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**New York; Autumn of 1920:**

'Curse all the Humans,' Demona thought to herself, which was what she had been doing now for the past 800 years or so.

She had travelled to New York, because she had seen newspapers with articles about people who had come from America, speaking about seeing a huge flying monster that looked like the Devil himself.

Since her kind had been called the _Devils children,_ on more than one occasion, Demona decided that the opportunity was too good to pass up. Besides, it wasn't as if she had anything else better to do. One of the worst things about being immortal was that she had all the time in the world and not enough tasks to fill it with.

She soared through the sky like an Archangel, swooping and diving through the endless pathways of the buildings, hoping and praying to whatever God watched over her kind that he might spare her the torment of living alone.

Demona glided past another building and slammed straight into what, she thought, must have been a brick wall. After that, she knew no more.

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Demona moaned, as she sat up and reached out to touch her forehead. 'What in blazes hit me?'

"Are you alright?" a deep voice sounded above her.

Demona looked up sharply, and saw to her amazement, and delight, a handsome male Gargoyle who looked just about her age. Well…at least the age that she looked like anyway.

He was about eight feet tall, with a build much like Goliath's had been. His hide was a golden red colour that shone like fire. His wings were also similar to Goliath's, except for the colour, and instead of the single claws that Goliath had had at the end of his wings; this one had claw fingers like hers. He didn't have any horn ridges or knee spikes. To be quite frank, he was a rather plain looking Gargoyle, but he was still very pleasing to the female Gargoyle's eyes.

He had a short crop of white-blonde hair that gleamed in the moonlight, and ended in small curls that framed his delicate face. But the most attractive and enchanting part about him was his eyes! She had never seen a Gargoyle, any Gargoyle, with eyes like his before. They were bright blue and seemed to sparkle, like they were filled with stars, and the way they stared at her made Demona feel loved and cared for, something that she hadn't felt in a long, long time.

Despite feeling eager to talk, to ask about who he was and about his clan…etc, Demona was completely at a loss for words and could only manage a simple, "Hello?"

The welcome stranger tilted his head at her and responded. "Greetings, beautiful one. I must say that it is indeed a welcome sight to meet another one of my kind. Especially one as beautiful as you."

Despite her reputation for being hard as a rock and cold as ice, Demona felt a hot flush rise up into her cheeks. "Thank you," she whispered, and then took a look around. "Where are we?"

"You are in my home. Well, my home for the time being that is. It is just a quiet place where I hang my hat, as the Humans say, one of many."

Demona took another look around the place that he called home. The place was a dump, no question about it, but she decided not to say anything.

"It's…very nice," she spoke through her teeth.

The male Gargoyle smirked at her. "You're not a very convincing liar, I'm afraid."

Demona was ready to bite back the remark, but in the end she saw the funny side of it and rewarded him with a smirk of her own. She hadn't smiled or laughed in ages, except for when she was mocking the present hunters who were hunting her and her kind.

"I am called Demona. Who are you?"

The golden red one looked at her curiously. "I don't have a name. Last time I checked, it was not in our kind's nature to take names?"

Inside, Demona felt a joyful glee come up inside of her. She had finally found a handsome male Gargoyle who had not been corrupted by Human beliefs and desires.

"It was not of my choosing. I was given this title by…a former ally who later betrayed me and my second clan."

"Second?"

Demona froze for a second and blinked back the tears that were threatening to spill. "The clan that I was born into was destroyed by Humans. I spent a few years on my own, before a man, who called himself the Hunter, came and began hunting and slaughtering our kind. Eventually, I gathered up the survivors of our kind who had survived his plague of death and formed another clan with them. Years later, I formed an alliance with another Human who swore to protect us and keep us forever safe so I agreed."

She took a deep breath and waited a few seconds before continuing. "We managed to defeat the Hunter, twice! But each time that we defeated him, someone, who believed in the Hunter's mission to eradicate our race, came and took on his mask to carry on the hunt. Eventually, I suppose our ally must have had enough, as I overheard him planning with his advisers on how to betray us to the Hunter. So I took my clan and escaped, but the Hunter found us anyway and he massacred the lot of us!"

Her last words came out hard and bitter. She remembered the night, when she had woken up after supposedly being slain by Prince Canmore, and the Lady Gruoch had told her about her clan member's deaths by his hands. She had searched the land for them on the following night, before finally coming across their mutilated bodies and swore that, one-day, she would avenge them.

She was so absorbed in her own reverie that she didn't notice the Gargoyle make his way across the room towards her until he put his arms and wings around her. "I'm sooo sorry," he said and held her close to him.

Demona's first instinct was to throw him off and fight, but…she felt so safe and warm in his arms and wings. She rested her head on his shoulder and held him, as he rubbed her back, a gesture of goodwill. For the first time in centuries…Demona relaxed.

"Thank you," she purred, making the male turn an even deeper shade of red. "What about you? Where's your clan?"

The blush instantly left his face, and for a couple of moments he looked sad and then angry. "I have no clan! The humans killed them all! Our clan was nesting on an old abandoned warehouse; I left to do some patrolling. The sun rose before I could return so I spent the day somewhere else and when I returned…our clan was no more."

This story sounded unnaturally familiar to her, as she recalled what story she had planned for Goliath when she returned to the castle after the massacre. But the surprise had been for her when she discovered her lover and the remaining members of her clan, all encased in stone. Thus, they had remained for over 900 years with her as their guardian, still waiting for their eventual awakening.

"So… you've been living on your own since then?" She asked.

"Yes. It's not so bad once you get used to it."

Demona made her decision right there and then.

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"I'm not sure if I should do this?"

She looked over at her travelling partner and gave him a hard look. "No one should have to live in filthy, vermin infested places like you do. I have a beautiful home that's fit for a king, and since you and I are the only ones of our kind here, it makes perfect sense that we should move in together. And before you say anything else, let me make one thing perfectly clear…I WILL NOT TAKE NO AS AN ANSWER, OKAY?"

He looked at her, and just nodded.

They glided for an about another half-hour before finally coming across a huge mansion that was completely hidden behind four stonewalls in seclusion.

Demona's new friend gave off a low whistle as he stared at the impressive architecture. The mansion was almost completely filled with stone Gargoyles. 'Let's hope that these Hunters of Demona's don't come looking for us,' he thought. 'If they do and they see this place, then there's gonna be Hell to pay, because those statues are a dead give-away.'

He crouched as he and Demona landed on her balcony and she took a key out of her pouch that hung from her loincloth. She placed the key into the keyhole and unlocked the door. "Welcome to my humble home."

Demona and her guest entered her house and for a few moments, he was speechless as he looked at the interior design of the house. There were all sorts of items and talismans, laid out everywhere like decorative ornaments. There were also paintings and photographs, showing scenes of wars and other horrific chapters in human history.

'She must hate the Humans, something awful?' he thought.

In truth, it was a nice set up, though a little gothic for his taste, and the pictures of war and human bigotry didn't help matters. But the sight of this beautiful angel, whom he had literally bumped into, more than made up for that. Suddenly, he noticed the time. There were only a few more hours until sunrise.

"Forgive me, beautiful one. But the sun will be up in a few hours time and I want to start and finish my patrols as soon as possible."

"Patrols?" Demona enquired, curiously.

"Yes. Every night, I go out and patrol this city and help out where I can in case anyone is in need of my aid."

Demona eyes suddenly flared red and she actually growled at him. "YOU PROTECT THE HUMANS? AFTER ALL THAT THEY HAVE DONE TO US, YOU HAVE THE ORDASITY TO CONTINUE PROTECTING THEM?"

The male looked at her in surprise, and just answered calmly. "Of course. If I were to give up a Gargoyle's purpose for living then what would I be? It has been in the nature of Gargoyles to protect since the dawn of time. If I were to give that up then I would no longer be a Gargoyle; I'd be…nothing. Besides, the humans have taken away everything that I hold dear, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let them take what little I have left, like my honour!"

She had no answer to this. It was obvious that he had no great love for Humans, but he wasn't about to give up their race's time honoured tradition of protection. 'Maybe he also does it so that he can honour the memory of his clan,' she thought. Since the destruction of both her clans, she had been more obsessed with avenging them than honouring their memory except for when she returned to Wyvern every year, lit a candle and sung that human melody. But nothing would ever convince her to start protecting the species that had nearly destroyed all of her people.

He turned and started to leave.

"Wait!" She called "I'm sorry, but…it's just that I've had so much bad experience with humans. I tend to act before I think. I'm sorry."

He turned back and looked at her with a look of pity "it's okay. I guess the humans have made us all a little edgy?"

Demona grinned. "So does that mean that you will be staying with me?"

He rolled his eyes and looked up for a moment, considering his options. True, this was a nice pad. Waaaaay better than the one he was living in right now and he would have to be a fool, not to want to live in it with a beautiful female of his kind. "Okay! I'll do it!"

Demona resisted from leaping with joy and said, "Good!"

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**Two Years Later:**

"Come on, my darling, you're slowing down!"

Demona soared through the sky, quietly imagining throttling her new mate's neck. She loved him with all her heart and soul, but he could be incredibly annoying sometimes. Though, to be honest, she had been gliding a lot slower these past few nights and she had once been one of the fastest gliders in her clan.

The only time when her gliding hadn't been at it's best was when…. Demona suddenly stopped in mid air in shock. 'It can't be' she thought. She ran her hands over her flat stomach and silently wondered about the possibility. The only other time when she had lost some speed was when she had been with egg. Could it be?

Demona decided that she would have to find out as soon as possible.

"Demona! My darling, are you alright?"

"Huh… yes, I'm fine. Just give me a moment to catch up, okay?"

Her friend and newfound mate nodded and slowed down, long enough, for her to catch up. "Are you sure that you're fine? You don't look it!"

"Yes, quite sure! I just need to get some rest."

"Okay!"

They slowly glided back to their home and Demona's mate, as he had no name and did not wish for one, helped her down and carried her in. "I can walk, you know?" Demona said "I only said that I was a little tired, not dying!"

Her mate grinned. "Since when have I ever needed an excuse for carrying you, my darling?"

Demona grinned back at him "true" she answered then silenced as he kissed her. "Mmmmmmm…" she moaned as his paw moved up to her chest and gently squeezed and caressed her breast and nipple. 'Damn it!' She thought 'why must he always make our partings so difficult for me'? "Forgive me, my love" she spoke "but I really do have something important to do now."

He looked disappointed for a moment, but gradually smiled and let her down. "Will you be long?"

"No. There's just something that I want check then I'll come back to you, I promise!"

He grinned, sinisterly, at her and kissed her one last time, his paws trailed down her spine, one of them went to her tail and the other to her buttocks, where he proceeded to gently squeeze and fondle them. Just as Demona thought she was about to come, he immediately let go of her and smirked, "I'll be waiting" he said and turned around and went to wait in their room.

Demona resisted the incredible urge to tackle him to the floor and make love to him right there and then. If anything, he was damn good at torturing her with those paws and that tongue of his. 'Damn him' she smiled and then quickly turned the other way and ran to her workroom to do what she came home for. Well… one of the things that she came home for anyway!

She practically smashed the door to her workroom open and instantly began grabbing all the items that she needed for her spell. A small copper jar with Gaelic signs and symbols on it, a dagger, some magical herbs that she had forgotten all about and some powder grounded from the bones of a pregnant beast.

She placed the jar on the table and held out her right paw over it, she then took the ceremonial dagger and proceeded to slit her wrist. She waited until the jar was half full with her blood and began chanting in Latin. The spell was short, so it didn't take long; she spoke the incantation and then took a pinch full of the powder and sprinkled it into the jar.

There was a sudden whoosh in the air and the dark liquid in the jar started to glow purple then blue and then purple again. Demona waited a few more seconds before her blood, in the jar, had settled on its new purple tone. When it did, she was overjoyed, the spell was positive… She was with egg!

"MY LOVE," She screamed and ran out the door. She ran on all fours to get to her room where she found him waiting for her, in bed. 'Typical' she smirked, but didn't complain. Not when she saw his gorgeous and naked body, shining in the moonlight.

"What is it?" He asked, concerned.

Demona looked at him, licking her lips in desire, for a moment before remembering. "I'm with egg!" she announced!

Her mate just stared at her for a while, his mouth, wide open and his eyes bulging before finally. "You're…you're pregnant?"

Demona shrugged. "That is the human term for it. Yes."

"Oh…great." then his eyes rolled up and he fell back onto the bed. Demona instantly ran to his side and began gently slapping his face to awaken him. After a while, she just quit with the gentle slapping and landed him a big one.

"OWWW," he yelled, rubbing his face, whilst glaring at his beautiful, but darlingly aggravating mate. Demona just smirked and asked him, "Feeling better?"

He then remembered what it was what she told him that made him faint. "You're with egg?" he asked again.

Demona frowned at him. "Yes, and if I have to tell you a thousand times then so be it. I…AM…WITH…EGG!"

He blinked a couple of times and then jumped up from the bed, grabbed her by the waist and twirled her around the room, shouting in joy. "I'M GONNA BE A DADDY!"

Demona fumed for a bit about being twirled about like a hatchling, but he soon had her laughing and kissing him in happiness.

At long last, her life was starting to turn out all right!

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**Ten Years Later:**

"I'm not sure about this, my darling," her mate questioned, concerned.

Demona looked at her mate on mock exasperation. "Don't give me that, I laid the egg years ago, so I'm perfectly healthy and I'm only going out for one night with you, so I'm positive that the egg will be fine without us for just one night!"

Her mate continued to look worried, but he had long since learnt by now that it was pointless to try and sway her when her mind was made up. The last time he tried, he had actually tried being forceful and threatened her that if she didn't listen to him and do as he said that he would have to get rough with her. He even challenged her to a duel to prove it.

He had ended up with a broken nose, a bruised eye and several broken ribs. 'Thank God for stone sleep,' he thought.

"Alright," he agreed, reluctantly. In truth, he didn't even know why she was out here with him, on patrol; in the first place, as he knew how much she hated humans. Although her temper had quietened down a lot since he first met her, humans were not her most favourable species.

Demona smiled. Yes, she did hate humans, with all her soul, but what with their child close to hatching, she knew that changes had to be made. She knew that her beloved mate would want to teach him or her about the values of honour and a Gargoyle's nature to protect. She had long since given up on both of those things, but now she wanted to reclaim them. She didn't want her child growing up with a dishonourable monster for a mother. So she had decided to come out with him on patrol and help him to protect the species that had given her so much pain and misery over the centuries.

'How ironic,' she thought, 'that I, Demona, once called the scourge of humanity would become their protector once more.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud scream that came beneath them. Her mate instantly dived to where the scream had erupted from and sought to help whomever it was that was in need of help.

Demona followed and soon they came down upon an alley, where an old peasant man that the humans of today referred to as a _homeless guy_. Two younger men were harassing him, one with a gun and the other with a long and wicked looking knife.

Her mate immediately flew into action. He dived at the man with the gun because that was the more dangerous weapon of the two and could easily kill either of them. The poor fool never knew what hit him, as he was standing up one second and then a huge, golden-red blur came down, crushing the life out of him and knocking him out senseless.

His companion watched, shocked, as his friend was tackled and more than easily disabled. He only stood there for about a few seconds, watching, before he turned and ran for his life, only to come face to face with a pair of crimson red eyes that snarled at him.

"Going somewhere, human?"

The man gagged and stuttered, as he was lifted off his feet by his throat and thrown into the wall behind him.

Demona watched with deep satisfaction, as the pitiful human's body fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Very good, my darling," her mate crooned, as he stepped up off the man that he had so effectively knocked out and tied up with a long iron pipe. He started to walk towards her.

All of a sudden, there was the sound of a gunshot and her mate stood still with a blank expression on his face. His left paw slowly went up to the back of his head and touched it. When he brought it back down, it had blood all over it. His eyes moved back to Demona one last time, and as he gave her one last look that she couldn't quite read; he fell to the ground.

Demona, who had been in shock, stood there with her mouth gapping open. She took a few steps toward the Gargoyle that had given her back her life and made her feel alive again. She kneeled beside him and examined his head. There was a large bullet hole in the back.

Demona eyes turned to the man, whom they had saved, only to find him standing with the gun in his hands and a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

"It finally ends, demon," he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a mask with three red scratch marks on it, and placed it on his head.

'The Hunter,' Demona thought, her thoughts fighting through a haze, because her mind was still in shock over the death of her mate.

She turned her attention back to her beloved and turned him over, only to find the same blank expression that he had worn on his beautifully handsome face before he died. He looked at her with unseeing eyes; his face permanently set into the same expression that he wore before death, the expression of death. The shock finally passed and Demona let loose a hideously fearsome screech into the air that even had the hunter quivering in his boots.

The Hunter never had time to even lift up his gun as the demon came charging at him, her eyes set aflame like the devils and threw herself at him. She dug her talons into his neck and held them there as he gagged and struggled to breath, before she quickly lowered her head, bit into his filthy human flesh and ripped out his throat. The present hunter gave one last whimper and his body convulsed one final time before it stopped and came to a rest and his eyes took on the same blank look as her late lover did.

But Demona wasn't finished yet! After dealing with the elder man, who had taken her love from her, she immediately sprang up from the hunter's corpse and tackled the other man that her mate had subdued. Her talons slashed his face, as they had done centuries ago to the first hunter and continued to do so to the rest of his body. She listened to his cries of pain and his pleas of mercy as she ravaged his body, reducing it to nothing more than a meaningless pile of torn flesh and nothing else.

Never once, not even for one second, did she ever stop.

After the second hunter was taken care of, Demona jumped up and turned to face the third hunter that she had subdued, only to find him gone.

Demona let loose another cry of rage and picked up the corpses of her victims and tore them into further pieces thus painting the walls of the alley with their blood. Her rage, finding no end, continued to ravage the alley, picking up every piece of item that she could find, tearing it to shreds and throwing it all over the place. In the end, there was nothing left in the alley that she could destroy except the body of her beloved and no amount of rage could ever bring her to ravage that!

With nothing left to ravage and no enemies to fight, Demona had nothing to do, but to take the body of her beloved back to their home. Correction… _her_ home, as she was all alone once more, thanks to the humans! Her eyes began to see red again as she cursed the humans for everything that they had taken from her, again and again.

She picked up her mate's body, slowly scaled the wall up to the top and took off.

Had she looked behind her, she would have seen one of the alley walls open up to reveal the third hunter that she thought had escaped. He stepped out of his hiding place and starred at the remains of his family, all torn and shredded beyond recognition. He turned his head and watched the form of the demon disappear from sight and screamed a bloody oath, one that had been sworn many times before him, by many of his ancestors over the centuries.

"NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES DEMON! I WILL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU IN THE SAME WAY THAT YOU KILLED MY FATHER AND BROTHER! SHOULD I FAIL TO FIND YOU THEN MY SON WILL CARRY ON THE HUNT AND HIS SON AFTER HIM! THERE WILL BE NO REST FOR US UNTIL THE LAST GARGOYLE DIES!"

With that, Charles Canmore the first turned and ran out of the alley before anyone saw him. He had to get back home to Scotland, to his wife and son, Charles Canmore the second, who was back there waiting for him.

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She carried her beloved mate's body back to the mansion and built a fire upon the roof where she burned his body and scattered his ashes with the wind. Except for one small handful of ashes that she placed within a small bag and hung around her neck so that he would always be close to her, even in death. She didn't cry, she was sick and tired of crying. She should have realised that humans, in one way or another, would ruin every chance she got for happiness.

In a motionless and almost zombie-like state, she walked through the doors to her home and sat down in the living room. It was strange being alone again after spending over a decade of being with her new mate. She sat there for God knows how long?

She just sat there, starring at the wall with nothing to do, but think of what she had lost. The humans would all pay for what they had done to her, no doubt about that. All she had to do was wait and if it's one thing that an immortal has plenty of, is time!

All of a sudden she heard a cracking sound. Her instincts immediately came online and her senses began listening for anything that sounded like prey. The cracking sound continued to sound through the living room and soon, she followed it back to its source. It was her egg!

"Oh my" was all Demona said as she lowered herself to the floor and watched as her child, slowly, made its way into the world. After much wobbling, the egg finally came to a stop and a tiny azure fist punched through the shell, followed by a crop of white blonde hair, a head, a neck, a chest with two wings, a tail and two talon feet.

The hatchling, as it made its way into the world, started to wail and cry. It sounded like it had a good pair of lungs.

Demona put her arms around it and gently lifted the newborn Gargoyle up to her. The baby gazed up at her and Demona found herself looking straight into her daughter's eyes. Eyes that she had loved more than anything and would continue to do so for all time to come.

She hugged the precious little body that held the spirits of herself and that of her fallen mate and gazed into her daughter's eyes… her mate's eyes! Eyes that shone as blue as the sky in paintings that she had seen, set during the day and sparkled as if they were filled with stars. Eyes that had brought her joy, happiness...life.

"So what will I call you little one?" She asked it, not expecting an answer "how about Hope? No, sounds too corny. Glory? No, wait!" Looking into her daughter's eyes that had once been her mates, she suddenly though of the perfect name for her little bundle of joy. 'My love always referred to me as his darling' she thought and proudly looked down on her offspring. "From this day onward. You shall be known as… Darlene! My darling Darlene!"

Although she had sworn never to cry again, she could not stop letting loose a few tears for this happy occasion.

Tonight she had lost a mate, but had gained a daughter.

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**Ten Years Later: **

"Okay, Darlene, now hold the sword in front of you, like this."

Darlene held the large sword in front of her face and mimicked her mother's movements. She aimed it at her mother and waited for the attack.

Demona suddenly came forward with her sword and tried to bring it down on her daughter's face. Darlene managed to effectively block it and took a swing at her mother's own face, but Demona grabbed her sword, flung it away from her and then pointed her own sword at Darlene's throat.

"Good defence! But you have to be quicker and smarter than that my daughter. Otherwise the next time when you fight, your opponent won't let you get up and walk away."

Demona tossed her sword to the side and helped her child up. Darlene giggled as she reached under her arms to pull her up, tickling her slightly.

Demona smiled at her daughter's laugh. "Hmmm… maybe I shouldn't be so quick to end the fight?" Demona then began to mercilessly tickle her child on the belly.

Darlene squealed with laughter and tried to wriggle away from her mother. "No mommy, no!"

Demona finally stopped what was probably the worst torture to a little kid and hugged her most beloved treasure in the world.

"Mommy?"

"Mmmm?"

"I have something for you" Darlene detached herself from Demona's arms and ran out of the room for a minute or two. When she came back, she was carrying a small painting.

"What's this?" Demona asked as Darlene handed her the picture.

"It's a picture of you that I painted. Don't you think that it looks like you?"

Demona eyed the picture closely. In all honesty, the picture looked more like a strange tree than it did of her, but she didn't say so. "It's very good, sweetheart."

Darlene smiled and hugged her mother. "I love you mommy!"

Demona sniffed back a tear and held her daughter close "I love you too sweetheart. Forever and ever."

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**Twenty Years Later: **

"DARLENEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Demona's thunderous voice came screeching out her study, searching for her young offspring.

Darlene slowly walked out of her personal room that her mother had given her to play in, when she was young and walked to her mother's study.

Darlene had inherited her mother; Demona's azure colouring even though it was a tad bit lighter than hers was. She also had her mother's delicately framed face and her father's eyes wings and white blonde hair. By the age of twenty (ten in Gargoyle years) she was quite the little beauty. Demona had often thought that she had given birth to an angel, every time that she looked at her daughter.

She really was the prettiest little gem and Demona swore to herself that she would die a million deaths, before she would ever left some back stabbing human get close to her.

Unfortunately, no one's perfect because as pretty as Darlene was, she was also trouble with a capital T.

Darlene walked to her mother's study and knocked on the door.

"Enter!" Demona spoke, her voice with a sharp edge to it.

Darlene took a deep breath and entered her mother's home away from home.

The place was in shambles! Books had been overturned, there was a large burnt hole in the wall and one of Demona's urn jars had been broken. Demona was not happy!

"Would you mind EXPLAINING THIS?" Demona yelled, pointing at the destruction that had once been her workroom.

Darlene cringed, "I was… practising."

"PRACTISING?"

Darlene took a step back. She knew what a frightful temper that her mother had and didn't want to be at the receiving end if it. "I was… practising my magic. I tried to summon a water spirit with one of your urn jars, but something went wrong. Instead of summoning a water spirit, I conjured up a fire spirit. It went mad and blasted a hole through the wall and… I managed to get rid of it by breaking the urn jar!"

Darlene lowered her head in shame, "I'm sorry."

Demona blinked a couple of times and looked back at the war zone that had once been her workroom. "You… summoned an elemental spirit?"

Darlene nodded.

Demona had to put on her best poker face, as the humans called it, because summoning an elemental spirit was an extremely hard spell. One that even she had not quite mastered at first and Darlene had been able to summon one on her very first try.

True, she had summoned the wrong one, but for her very first go, it was exceedingly impressive. She was not, however, going to let her daughter know that!

"You shouldn't have tried casting a spell without my supervision. You could have been hurt or worse. Not to mention what you've done to my workroom. Just be grateful that it didn't spread around the rest of the house."

Darlene sniffed and nodded. Demona felt a wave of pity for her, but decided to remain firm. If she allowed Darlene to get away with this incident then what was stopping her from trying it again?

"Go to your room and stay there for the rest of the night."

"Ohhh, but mom…!"

"No buts! Now… GO!"

Darlene rushed away from her mother before she started shouting again and raced to her room. Demona had to keep herself from laughing. By the way that her child looked at her when she was angry, you would think that she was going to eat her.

Demona sniggered, but soon stopped when she took another look at the mess that she was going to have to clean up and went back to cleaning up the room.

Darlene raced to her room, but slowed down once she was inside. She went to the window with the little light that her mother had put on, which gave her favourite flower, a pink rose, life. Since she and her mother could only come out at night, she could never see flowers bloom in the daytime. So her mother had told her about photosynthesis where the plant feeds off the solar rays from the sun and gave her the lamp, which provided her favourite flower with all the energy it needed.

She fondled the petals and sighed at the pretty flower's soft touch. It always used to calm her down and pink Roses were her favourite, of all time, flowers.

Her mother had a violent temper. She knew that, but she also knew that her mother loved her. Darlene loved her too and couldn't imagine life without her.

She just wished that she wouldn't let her anger take over her all the time. When she was good, she was wonderful, but when she was bad…she was terrifying!

Darlene shuddered and fondled the rose petals some more.

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**Ten Years Later: **

"Mother?"

Her mother looked up from the book that she was reading, "Hmmm?"

Darlene came into the living room.

Darlene had matured into one of the greatest of all beauties that had ever walked upon the earth. Her body has grown from the innocent angel like child to a full buxom warrior! She was as tall as Demona and had her figure, together with her azure colouring that was now equal in shade to her own. Her hair had grown all the way down her back; it shone brighter than the sun and was so soft that it was like touching water. Her eyes were just her father's! Sky blue that sparkled as though they had stars inside them, and looked like they could see right into your soul.

"I'm just going out for a glide, okay?" Darlene asked.

"Okay," Demona answered. "Just don't be long. I don't like you staying out any longer than you have to, especially when there are humans all over the place."

Darlene sighed. Even after all her years of trying to convince her mother to give the humans a chance. Her mother, being the stubborn mule that she was, wouldn't give her the time of night on that subject and refused to even speak of them except when insulting or cursing them.

"Fine" she said and turned around to leave. She decided not to bother getting into another fight tonight. She just wanted to glide and feel the wind beneath her wings.

She left through the balcony and soon was soaring through the skies doing plummets, twists, turns and dives that would leave anyone breathless.

Darlene was sooo sick of her life! She had been on her own forever, except for her mother. She had never had any friends or more importantly, a lover! She was completely alone and as there were no other Gargoyles around, she guessed that she would be alone for the rest of her life.

She loved her mother! No question about that and she could talk to her about almost anything… so long as it didn't have anything to do with humans. But she was so alone! She had even considered trying to make friends with some of the humans, but she had discarded that idea immediately. No way, would her mother go for it!

She soared through the sky, continuing doing twists and turns until…

"Leave off!"

Darlene heard a man yell at someone from below. Curious and without fear, she glided down to investigate.

She came upon a young human male, being mugged by four other men. The man looked weak and the others had weapons. Her mother had always told her not to get herself involved in human affairs, but… she couldn't just stand by and watch this poor male get the life beaten out of him?

With a loud roar of rage and savagery, she jumped down from the building; she was nesting on and landed on her own two talon feet. Her eyes shone a crimson red, highlighting the rest of her face, giving her a demon appearance like her mom.

The two muggers took one look at her and then ran screaming for their lives. The other man, the victim, looked up at her in awe, as well as in fear.

Darlene cocked her head at him and asked him. "Are you all right?"

When he didn't answer, she moved cautiously forward so as not to frighten him and gently touched his cheekbone. He immediately came out of his reverie, shook his head and spoke "h… h… hi?"

Darlene was not only surprised by his attitude of not running away from her like the others, but downright amazed that he had actually said hello to her.

"Err… hi," she replied?

The human looked at her and found his voice. "Hi, I'm Paul! I'm from Los Angeles and I… wow! Tell me… I don't want to sound rude or anything, but… just what the hell are you?"

Darlene sighed and took a deep breath. She couldn't help noticing how the human's eyes travelled all over her chest when she breathed. She smirked and thought 'amazing how human males never seem to care what species a woman is, so long as she has a big chest?'

"I'm a Gargoyle. You wouldn't have heard of my kind because we tend to keep ourselves secret."

The human cocked his head. "Why?"

"Because most of my kind has been wiped out by humans. That's why!"

The human looked shocked and stood still for a while, not knowing what to say. Eventually he decided to speak again, "My names Paul by the way. Paul Anderson."

Darlene raised an eye ridge. "Darlene."

"Nice to meet you," he said, smiling.

Darlene didn't know what to make of this human. He seemed nice, but her mother had told her stories about all the humans that she had befriended over the ages, only for them to turn against her and murder her clan. Still, he seemed nice and friendly enough and if he dared to try and attack her, she'd make sure that he wouldn't live long to regret it. "Nice to meet you too."

They stood like that for a few minutes, neither of them knowing what to say be fore finally, it seemed that Paul could take it no longer. "Soooo… do you fly with those things?" He indicated to her wings.

"Huh? Oh no, I just glide. But it still is a pretty remarkable experience. You should try it sometime?"

Paul smirked. "Well, I would. That is if I had any wings then I would."

It was Darlene's turn to smirk now. "Well, that can be easily arranged."

Before Paul even had a chance to blink. Darlene rushed over to him, faster than the speed of lightning, picked him up and jumped onto the wall. She scaled up the wall with a very surprised and stunned human on her back, before letting go and jumping into mid air.

As for Paul, he had only one thing to say to all of this, while it was going on and that was… "DARLENNNNNNNEEEEEEE?"

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Darlene and Paul spent a lot of time together after that night. Darlene never seized to giggle as she looked at Paul's face when they went gliding. The guy had to be the world's biggest scaredy cat that she had had ever seen when it came to gliding. Every time when they went gliding, he gripped her shoulders so tight that she thought he was going to pull them right out of their sockets.

For the first time in her life, Darlene had a friend! Someone she could talk to and spend time with instead of her mother. It felt good!

Despite his fear of gliding, Paul had a wonderful sense of humour and for a human she guessed that he must be quite attractive to the human female eye? He certainly had got her attention. He was about six feet tall and well built, with rich brown hair; sun tanned skin, round brown eyes like berries and a broad smile with high cheekbones. He was a construction worker.

She found herself blushing every time when she looked at him, especially last night when she caught him bending over to tie his show laces. When he had done that, she had discovered another part of his anatomy that was very well built.

Darlene felt like shaking herself and slapping herself around the face a thousand times. What the hell was she thinking? Paul was a human for crying out loud, there was no way that he and she could ever become an item. Even if he did feel something for her, there was still no way that they could be together for a million reasons. Her mother for one! She would go ballistic if she found out that she was spending time with a human let alone falling in love with him… 'WHAT?' Did she just say that she was falling in love with him?

Darlene started to think that maybe she should have a little talk with Paul, right away.

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"Mother, I'm going out again. I'll see you before sunrise."

"Again?" Demona asked "you've been going gliding a lot these past few weeks?"

Darlene started to look uncomfortable, but managed to successfully hide it "just been practising my gliding. Nothing unusual except that I think I might get wing cramp if I stay still for too long?"

Demona smirked and waved her hand "alright, fine. Go!"

Darlene smiled and kissed her mother on the cheek "I'll see you soon mother. I'll catch you later!"

"Be sure to be back before sunrise this time alright!"

"Yes mother. Goodbye!"

Darlene leaped from the balcony and instantly began heading towards Paul's apartment. She had taken him there on their first glide together and since then, she had been visiting him almost every night.

She thought about what she was going to ask him and how? She needed to ask him where they were in their relationship? Did he have feelings for her? For that matter did she have any feelings for him? After all she had never had a friend before, so for all she knew, she could just be mistaking their friendship for love? But she wouldn't know for sure until she found him and talked to him.

After a half an hour of flight, she soon came upon his small, but comfortable apartment. As always, his light was on and his balcony door wide open. She soon touched down on his balcony and walked inside "Paul? I'm here!"

She took another few steps forward, but stopped. The first thing she saw was a complete stranger, kneeling in the middle of Paul's living room, right over Paul's unconscious body!

The intruder never had the chance to look up and see who the second intruder was as Darlene sped towards him and landed a fist straight in his face that would have made her mother proud. The burglar practically flew through the air and smashed his head against the wall.

As he fell down, unconscious, Darlene rushed over to Paul's side and gently lifted his head into her lap. "Paul? Are you all right?"

Paul had a nasty looking bump on his head, but other than that, he seemed fine. He groaned and tried to sit up, but Darlene kept her hand on him, preventing him "don't move. Be still."

Paul slowly opened his eyes and looked right into hers and smiled "You know something? You have really _really_ beautiful eyes."

Darlene smirked at him "you know? If I didn't know any better. I'd swear that you were flirting with me?"

Paul smirked back at her "it's a good thing that you know me better than that then, huh?"

Darlene smoothed back a curtain of his soft hair and looked at his face, his beautifully calm and funny face. She stared at the bump on his head again and looked back over to the intruder. She suddenly noticed that the intruder had a knife near him that must have dropped when she threw him! If she had been just a few seconds late then…

Darlene started to cry.

"Hey?" Paul started "what's all this? I'm all right; it's just a bump! Couple of days and I'll be right as rain."

Darlene shook her head "that isn't why I'm crying. I almost lost you tonight!"

Paul finally managed to succeed in getting up and folded her in his arms "but you didn't. You got here just in time and saved me! Remember?"

Darlene sniffed, but didn't let Paul let go of her. He had such long and strong, elegant arms. Just perfect for hugs!

"I don't know what I would if I lost you. You mean the world to me Paul and I don't ever want to loose you."

Paul finally detached himself from her and looked her straight in the eye "what are you saying Darlene?"

Darlene blushed. This was it! Do or die time as the humans said. "I guess what I'm trying to say is… well… I… I… I love you." She whispered.

Paul leaned forward "What was that?"

Darlene steeled herself ready for the expected reaction "I love you." There! That was it! She had finally said it and now she could get on with her life. She braced herself for Paul to start telling her that they just weren't meant for each other or something like that.

But instead… Paul sat up and kissed her?

Darlene's eyes went round with shock as Paul kissed her. His touch was so warm and inviting and his taste was so sweet. Darlene hesitated only for a second longer before taking him in her arms and kissing him more passionately.

When they were finished. Paul drew back for air and gasped at her "phew! You girl gargoyles sure know how to sock it to us guys, huh?"

Darlene grinned and pulled him back for another kiss.

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A few months went by quickly for Darlene and Paul because neither of them had ever been happier in their entire lives and time was a way of speeding up when you're happy.

But as happy as they were, there was still a dark cloud looming over their happiness and that cloud was called… Demona, Darlene's mother!

Darlene knew that her mother would never accept Paul, what with him being human and all. She feared what she might do to him and it was getting more and more dangerous for her to try and sneak out. Her mother was already more than suspicious about where she was going on her nightly glides, but so far she hadn't asked, as Darlene had never lied to her. That was the horrible thing about all of this! She had to keep secrets and tell lies to her mother, something that she had never done.

Paul had once suggested that she should just go to her mother and tell her everything and maybe bring him to meet her.

Darlene had spent nearly the entire night laughing at him! The idea was just so preposterous. He didn't realise how dangerous her mother could be, but she knew and she would be damned if she were going to let Paul risk his life for her.

But what was she going to do? The only logical choice was for her to run away with Paul, but where would they go and how would she hide? Her mother could easily find her, as there weren't that many gargoyles gliding around the place.

Suddenly… it hit her! The only way that she and Paul would be safe from her mother was if they were to go into hiding, but only if Darlene was no longer a gargoyle. If she were human then if Demona ever came looking for her then it would be just like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But how was she going to change herself? Then it hit her. 'Of course!' Her mother's spell books that she had been collecting for ten centuries. Surely there had to be a spell in there somewhere that could help her? She told Paul her plan and though he was unsure about casting spells and everything, he hadn't exactly been a great believer in magic, but seeing as he was dating a gargoyle! That didn't seem to matter much anymore. Darlene explained to him that it was the only way that they could be together, so he eventually agreed.

They decided that it would be best if they didn't see each other for a while until Darlene could figure out the spell. Those were the longest few weeks of her life!

Darlene never stopped researching through her mother's books. Her mother just assumed that she was trying to broaden her knowledge of sorcery and since she was the one who taught her that then she didn't mind. In fact, she encouraged it!

After much reading, chanting, herb gathering and potion mixing. Darlene was finally ready with the spell!

After meeting Paul again at his apartment, they started to make their plans for their eventual escape! Darlene thought it would be best if her mother thought she was dead.

That way, she wouldn't think about coming after her if she thought she was deceased!

Paul worked at a construction site and knew when a building was going to be demolished. There was one that the day of demolition had been moved up a day early? That would prove very useful to her!

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"Mother?"

Demona looked up from her desk and smiled at the one light of her life as she came into her study. "What is it daughter?"

"I have to go out again."

Demona's face immediately fell as Darlene asked her permission, once more, to venture out into the night. "I see." Demona raised herself from her chair and stood to carefully look at her offspring. She had noticed Darlene's strange behaviour over the past few months, but didn't want to pry. She had thought that her daughter would tell her in her own time, but so far… she hadn't!

"I maybe out late this night? There's a lot of things that I want to see in the city tonight!" Darlene spoke with barely noticeable excitement, something that didn't escape her mother's attention.

"Darlene? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just want to get out and do some gliding tonight. That's all!"

"Again?" Demona asked with a raised eye ridge.

"What? I haven't been gliding in ages!"

Demona couldn't argue with that, but she still found it disconcerting, the way that her daughter just seemed to brush her off like that. But Darlene had never done anything bad and she always told the truth. Plus, she had been studying really hard at her magic lessons lately, so she deserved a little break! "Very well" she moodily agreed.

"Thanks mom!" Darlene spoke with very little enthusiasm, but gave her mother one small smile, a hug and a kiss. She held onto her for a long moment and whispered "I love you."

Demona felt very confused, but happily accepted the show of love and affection from her beloved child and answered "I love you too."

Darlene gave her mother a long look "if I'm not back then I'll be spending the day on that old abandoned warehouse a few blocks from here. You know the one that I'm talking about?"

"Yes, I remember, but try and be back before sunrise! I don't like you spending the days out in the open with no protection."

"I'll be fine mother." Darlene said while giving her mother one final look before turning away and running out the balcony door.

Demona watched her daughter's rapidly fading form as she soared across the night sky and disappeared from sight. Part of her wanted to soar after her daughter and make her tell her what was going on? But she knew her daughter would never tell her if she went after her that way.

Demona sighed and went back to her study. Without her daughter to talk to, her nights were very long and dull. It was like before she had met her father, back when she had been all alone with no one to talk to. She shuddered as she remembered those awful days and prayed that they would never come back!

0000000000

Darlene wept as she glided on the air currents, feeling them beneath her wings. Her tears clouded her vision so she stopped to land on another building before carrying on to her destination point. She looked back at the building that had been her home ever since the night of her hatching and remembered all the good times that she had there.

She remembered how her mother used to sing to her every morning before sunrise to ease her fear of daymares. How she taught her how to fight and to use weapons in the gym and how to command sorcery. A skill that had later been the one that had took her away from her mother and home.

As her memories continued to wash over her, she viciously shook them off and thought about her beloved Paul. With him in her thoughts, she quickly banished away all the thoughts that were threatening to make her go back and continued on her journey.

Within a few moments, she landed on Paul's balcony as he came out to greet her.

"How'd everything go?" He asked.

She answered him with only a vacant stare that turned into a sob as she rushed forward and cried into his shoulder. Paul knew how much this was hurting her and was more than willing to go to her mother and try and work this thing out in another way, but nothing would change Darlene's mind about what they were doing.

After a few more sobs and hiccups, Darlene finally stopped crying and looked at him with teary eyes. "I'm ready to do the spell," she simply said.

With a nod, Paul stood back and watched as she walked into the room of the abandoned building and began to draw a large circle, with a star in it, on the floor. She also drew some more complex diagrams into the circle. When she was done, she threw some herbs into the circle and chanted some words in Latin that he did not understand.

After a while, she stepped inside the circle and threw another handful of dust around herself and spoke a single more Latin word "MUTARE!"

No sooner had she said that word, she doubled over in pain and roared to the heavens. Paul ran over to her to help, but was stopped by an invisible field of some sort. He watched, helplessly, as she writhed on the ground, tossing and turning in unimaginable pain. Then, as he watched more closely, he saw her tail and wings shrink back into her body and her skin fade from the brilliant azure colouring that he loved into a pale golden pink hue. More changes continued to occur until finally she stopped screaming and Paul found that he could step into the circle and ran over to her.

The spell had apparently been a success, as Darlene the Gargoyle was no more. In her place was a beautiful human female with long fair hair and delicate features.

"Darlene?"

The woman groaned and got up. She glanced down at her new human fingers including the extra one and gasped in surprise. "It… it worked?"

"Apparently so" Paul responded.

Darlene examined her new form, at first, with a hint of disgust, but quickly overcame it when she saw her lover looking at her. "It's… different to what I thought it would be."

Paul gave her a sympathetic smile "missing your old form already?"

"Yeah, I guess. I suppose I never really thought about it until now, that… this is it! I'm human, now and forever. I'll never be able to soar across the skies again or roar to the heavens every time when I awake." She looked ready to cry, so Paul instantly put his arm around her.

"Its not too late is it? You can still undo the spell?"

Darlene instantly shook her head furiously "No! Mother will find us and I dread to think what she'll do to you? I would rather sacrifice my life as a gargoyle then risk loosing you!"

Paul gave her a gentle smile and kissed her.

After a while, the two of them parted and Paul lead her down the stairs, towards the exit, where he had his car waiting for them. Waiting, to take them to Los Angeles where they could begin a new life together.

Darlene threw one last lingering look at the city as she thought of her mother and then wove her arm under Paul's to try and forget.

0000000000

**The Next Night: **

Demona glided over the tall building and soared across the rooftops to find her way to the abandoned building where her daughter had said that she would spend the day if she didn't return before sunrise.

She had waited over an hour before worry had finally come over her and she decided to go out looking for her.

She finally glided past the final building that would bring her to her destination, but as she neared her destination. She stopped and stared!

The building was in ruins! It had been completely demolished!

Demona could only stare at the place where the building had once stood and where her daughter had supposedly past the day, on top!

Demona suddenly screeched her battle cry and dived forward onto the rumble where she proceeded to throw all the bricks and mortar out of her way, shouting her daughter's name over and over again.

"DARLENE!"

She continued screaming her name as she pulled the bricks apart with her bare claws. By the time that she stopped, her paws were furiously bleeding and her talons were blunt. Not that Demona would have noticed, as she was too engrossed in her own pain and dismay. Her daughter was gone, so now she was all alone once more. Alone to face the hunters when they finally came after her again, alone to face the world and all within it.

Demona didn't cry. She vowed that she would never cry again. The humans had done it again! Just as a ray of light had finally come into her life, the humans had come and snuffed it out again, as they had done so for a thousand years.

Demona got up and walked away to glide back to her home. She didn't bother trying to find her daughter's remains under the rumble as they were probably too far buried underneath to recover. But she swore that one-day, her daughter would be avenged, along with her father and the rest of her previous clans who had ever met anything to her! She would avenge them all and the humans would suffer greatly!

Once more, Demona's soul had taken a dive and was consumed by the sea of hatred that was in her heart. Her only purpose for being now, her reason for living, were her vengeance and the rage that came with it.

Demona left the ruined site and returned to the place where she was living. She no longer referred to it as home because home is where the heart is, and her heart, as far as she was concerned, was dead!

**Present Time: **

"So what your trying to tell us is… our Grandmother, whom we've never met, is some kind of immortal Gargoyle who hates Humans, namely us? Your really a Gargoyle, but you had yourself changed into a Human, years ago so that you could marry daddy, now we're broke so you want us to go to New York because of all the Gargoyle sightings there, find Granny and ask her for help?"

"Yes" Darlene, said without a hint of humour.

The children looked at each other then burst out into laughter. "Boy mom, when you spin a yarn, you really spin a long one!"

Darlene sighed, she had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it had to be done apparently. She got up and walked over to the circle and stood in its centre and started to chant some words in Latin that the children didn't understand.

After a while, she stopped and shouted the word "MUTARE!" After about 10 seconds had past, she gasped and bent over in a fit of pain. Lana and Jarred immediately got up to go help her, but before they even took one step. They watched as their mother's skin turned from milky white to an azure blue colouring and long tendrils of bone started to grow from her back and the base of her spine. The rest of her body seemed to develop more size and muscle and her feet and hands started to stretch and bend out of shape. Some of her fingers and toes even looked like they were welding together. It looked agonising painful!

Pretty soon, it stopped and where their mother had once been, now stood a female Gargoyle in all her glory and stunning beauty. Her azure colouring made her white blonde hair look like sunrays against a summer blue sky. She was at least a foot higher with more muscle and gleaming white fangs and as they looked on in shock, she opened her mouth and let loose a terrifying, catlike, roar that filled the room and probably the rest of the neighbourhood. Even worse was that her eyes had started to glow red like a demon when she did so.

Jarred gripped Gem closer to him in fear and Lana gripped him.

Darlene looked at her children in concern "are you alright? It's okay, it's still me. You're just seeing me a different light, that's all!"

After a few moments, Gem started bawling, so Darlene walked over to Jarred, took her from him and started to sing to her, to quieten her down.

The children looked at her in shock and horror, over what had happened to her. Their mother was no longer human! She had become one of those strange creatures that had become known as Gargoyles in Manhattan.

"Wha… what's happened to you" Lana screeched? Jarred just looked, dumb founded, at his mother's new talons.

Darlene sighed, 'this is going to be a lot harder than I thought.' She looked at them, in the eyes and said, "I told you! I am a full-blooded born Gargoyle! I met your father, who was human, about 20 years ago and changed myself into a human, so that I could marry him, but now that spell has been completely broken and I have reverted to my natural form."

"THIS IS NOT YOUR NATURAL FORM" Lana screeched. She was taking this worse than her brother who apparently was still in shock.

"I know this is a real shock to all of you, but it's not as bad as it looks. Being a Gargoyle is a truly wonderful thing and a great honour."

"HOW IS THIS A GOOD THING?" Lana howled "Your a freak. I'll never be able to go out in public again, hang out with my friends and go to school."

Darlene snarled at her daughter "don't… you ever say that word again! Gargoyles are not freaks! I didn't choose to live my life as a human because I wanted to. I did it because I wanted to be with your father and that was the only way, but if I had had another choice, I wouldn't have given up my Gargoyle life for anything!"

She gazed around at her children and sighed. "Look, believe me, I was never planning to tell you guys about your heritage, but… circumstances have changed a lot in the past few months."

"In what way?" Lana asked. She was curious despite her fear.

"I told you that it was because of our money problems that we were going to see your grandmother, but that's not the whole truth!" She took another deep breath, which she seemed to be doing a lot of in the past few moments. "The spell that I used to make me human… seemed to have been wearing off… I was slowly changing back into a gargoyle. I broke the spell tonight, only so you could see me in my true form and believe me when I told you my story."

Lana and Jarred stared at her for another few moments. Neither of them, looked as if they knew what to say. Finally, Jarred moved to speak, but before he said a word… he, Lana and even baby Gem started to scream in pain.

Darlene jumped up and ran to her two other children, but as she looked at them. They started to change in the same way that she had! Their skin tones turned azure like hers, wings and tails started to grow from their backs and their eyes began to glow blood red and white as lightning. She could even feel the changes occurring in little Gem as well!

Once the transformation was complete, the human children were gone and in their places were three gargoyles! Two hatchlings and one beautiful teenaged female!

After a few exhausted breaths and a moment of shock. Lana started to scream "! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ME?"

She ran to the old mirror in the attic and stared at herself, not knowing what she was looking at?

Jarred looked himself over. He was scared, Darlene could see that, but he also looked a little excited as well. After all, how often do you find yourself changing into something that looks like something out of a comic book?

"Are you all okay?" Darlene asked them, concerned.

"ARE WE OKAY?" Lana screeched "LOOK AT US? WE'RE FREAKING MONSTERS! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO US MOM?"

Darlene grimaced "I… I… I don't know! It… " Suddenly it hit her! "Oh dear lord! The spell!"

"What?"

"The spell that made me human, it was obviously what made you guys human all this time. When I broke the spell, it took all the magic away and made me a gargoyle again, but it also took away all the magic that had allowed you to be born human and live ordinary lives!"

"Well recast the spell then!" Lana was practically leaping about the room in anger to get her mother to do something.

Darlene guided her kids into the circle and performed the ritual once more. But nothing happened! They tried again and again… and again, but nothing worked!

"I don't understand?" Darlene felt her own temper starting to flare "why isn't this working? Everything is just the way as it was before so why… " For a moment Darlene paused. The kids pestered her every 2 seconds to find out what was going on before she finally told them to shut up!

"Oh no, the spell must be… "

"Mom, what is it?" Lana asked fearfully as she took in the haunted look on her mother's face.

Darlene looked into her daughter's eyes with fear and sadness "it's possible that the spell that I cast years ago… might have only been a once in a lifetime opportunity?"

"Huh?"

"I mean that I think you can only cast the spell once and once it wears off or… if you break it then that's it! The spell is over and it can never be cast again. At least not on the same person as it did before."

Lana looked terrified, but her fear started to slowly subside into anger and then rage "then you… you… YOU DID THIS TO US!" In a fit of rage, Lana launched herself at her mother, but Darlene was more than capable of handling herself with an enraged gargoyle even after so many years.

"That's enough Lana!" Darlene shouted as she grabbed her daughter's arms and pinned them to her sides.

Lana struggled for a bit, but after a while, she stopped and started to cry. "What are we going to do mom? I can't go to school like this, I can't do anything."

Darlene honestly didn't know what they were going to do. She wanted to break down and cry in the same way that her child was doing, but a mother had to remain strong for her children's sakes. She had leaned that from her own mother. The memory of her beloved mother still remained strong within her; she missed her so much.

If they couldn't find a way to become human again, if there was even a way then they would have no choice. There was only one other person that knew more about sorcery than her.

She had to go to her mother!

Jarred suddenly asked "mom. If we're stuck like this then… does that mean that we won't be able to go out in the daytime?"

Darlene gave him a curious look, wondering where this was going, "yeeeeeesssssss".

"Then that means that we won't be able to go out either then?"

Darlene suddenly had an idea where he was going with this "yes."

Jarred then gave off a gigantic whoop of delight and got up and danced around the attic floor "YEEEEE HAAAAARRRRRR! NO SCHOOL! I'M FREEEEEEEEEE!"

Darlene looked at her son and shrugged. It was true that she wanted to get her children to get used to their new forms, but this wasn't exactly what she had in mind. Still, if it works, use it as her mother used to say!

Lana on the other hand was another matter. She was obviously not taking this well, which was not surprising. She was a young woman with friends and a life and here she was, getting her life ripped away from her.

Darlene handed her youngest daughter to her only son, then walked over to her firstborn, "honey?"

Lana shot her mother an angry glare, but didn't say a word. She just stayed sitting down, looking at her mother's true form with a hint of fascination and disgust.

"Honey, it's alright! I know this hard for you to accept, but I am still the same woman that I was a few minutes ago. I just look different, that's all."

Lana still looked pissed, but at least she still wasn't trying to kill her. Darlene moved a little closer to her and touched her daughter's arm, she felt her tense up, but she didn't object, so she proceeded to hug her and rubbed her back.

"It's going to be all right! I'll find a way to help us all if it's the last thing that I do."

Lana whimpered a little then broke down and sobbed into her mother's embrace.

Darlene groaned. "It looks like I'm going to have go home after all!"

0000000000

**A Few Nights Later: **

Darlene landed on the balcony of her former home. The place hadn't changed much since she had last been here; in fact, it hadn't changed at all. She walked through the door and gazed around the room.

It had taken her and her children, only a few nights to get from Los Angeles to New York. Thanks to the money that they were planning to use to pay the mortgage with. But since they were now human and weren't likely able to stay in their house, they used the money to ship themselves out of L.A. and into N.Y.

"Seems Mom has been making some more additions to her collection since I was here last" she said as she looked over at all the new ornaments and talismans that, no doubt, had some magical property to them?

She froze in her tracks as she heard another door open behind her and heard the footsteps coming closer towards her. She started to turn around before she felt a pair of hands clutch around her throat!

Darlene instinctually grabbed the hands and threw her captor off her and listened as her would be captor cried as she fell to the floor. It was then when Darlene suddenly realised who she was?

"Oh my..."

Demona looked down as she rubbed her head in pain "I don't know who you are to intrude my home, but if you think that I'm going to let you get away with... " She looked up at the female and gasped.

Darlene sighed, "hello mother?"

Demona stared up at her in shock "you...it... can't be? You're dead!"

Darlene slowly walked up to her, bent down and took her mother's hand and held it to her face. "Its me mother! Darlene!"

Demona looked at her in disbelief "Darlene... but you're dead. How can this be?"

"No mother. I am alive. See?" She reached out and pinched her, lightly, on the cheek.

Demona continued to gasp in shock "But... how?"

Darlene suddenly looked uncomfortable "umm... maybe you and I better sit down for this? That is, on the couch, not on the floor."

Demona just nodded and allowed her newly supposedly resurrected daughter to walk her over to the nearby couch.

Darlene sat them both down and looked at the woman she had once loved more than anything else in the world and still did. It was just that she now loved her with three others. "Okay mom, now first thing...I want you to take deep breaths?"

Demona exclaimed "what do u think I'm doing now?"

"Getting ready to explode by the looks of you?"

"That's not funny Darlene!"

"It wasn't meant to be. I know you mother and… I can pretty much guess what your reaction is going to be in a minute or two when I tell you where I've been doing for the past twenty years."

Darlene took a deep breath, something that she was getting really good at for the last few days. "Do you remember before I… left? I was going out, gliding, a lot?"

Demona nodded "yes. I remember telling you to stay in once a while to spend some time with me, but you just said… "

"AAWWWWW MOMMM!" Darlene spoke at the same time as her mother, remembering all too well the agony she had felt at the time when she had to lie to her mother.

Demona gave her a hard, but amused look, but Darlene was still feeling way too nervous to be amused. "Well... the truth is… that… I wasn't really gliding, at least not for the whole night."

Demona had a very cold and hard look in her eyes "what?"

Darlene shuffled uncomfortably "I was meeting someone. Someone who meant a lot to me! On the emotional side, that is."

Darlene braced herself for the coming eruption "it was... a human!"

Demona stared at her. A stare that quickly turned into a bitter angry snarl as she sat up, on the couch and roared her fury, "WHAT?"

Darlene cringed, but put on a brave face "mother please keep calm."

Demona, however, wouldn't listen and her fury continued to rise. "A human?"

Darlene answered "yes and this is the reason why I left! I knew that you would never accept him. Hell, you might have even killed him for all I knew?"

Demona suddenly exploded "YOU HAD FEELINGS FOR A HUMAN?"

Darlene's fear had grown to a point where she wanted to run out of that place as fast as her legs could carry her, but her legs refused to do so. "I was... afraid that you would hurt him, so I went through your spell books and… found a spell that changed me into a human!"

Demona was growing a murderous look in her eyes "you turned YOURSELF into... a... a HUMAN?"

Darlene cringed "yes."

Demona took a few deep breaths and hissed quietly, "you... left me because of a human?"

Darlene shook her head "no, I left because I was lonely and because I was in love!"

"With a human?"

"Yes mother! With a human."

Demona stuttered "you... you... you...you turned your back on me... your own MOTHER, for a human?"

Darlene stood up and gave Demona a meaningful glare "yes, because I loved him! I still love him and I will always love him now and forever, until the end of time!"

Demona jumped back up to her feet and stood face to face with her second daughter "how dare you… how dare you make me think that you were dead!"

Darlene cringed again. She truly regretted what she had done all those years ago, but she couldn't go back and change what happened. All she could now was try and make things right again! "I'm sorry mother, I really am. I thought it would be easier for you if you thought I was dead. That way, you wouldn't have spent years thinking about where I was or if I was okay or anything?"

Her mother didn't say anything. She just stood there with an unreadable expression on her face "do you realise how much grief I felt? The nights that I spent, going through the rumble of the building looking for you? And NOW you come crawling back and for what… to introduce me to him?"

Darlene screamed in frustration and despair "FOR MY CHILDREN! Your Grandchildren!"

Demona stopped and gave her a blank expression "children?"

Darlene calmed down a little and began to speak with pride over her three bundles of joy "I have two daughters and a son!"

Demona looked a little interested, but it soon quickly passed "and what are they?"

Darlene was a bit miffed at the way that her mother didn't seem to show any interest in her own Grandchildren, but she didn't say anything about it. "At the moment they're gargoyles. When I changed back into a gargoyle to show my kids the truth about what I truly was. The spell must have been passed onto them when they were conceived and kept them human. So when I broke the spell… the magic that had kept them human broke too!"

Demona didn't say anything for a while. She just sat back down and stared at Darlene through thin eyes before she finally spoke again "so they're human?"

Darlene sighed. "Yes, mother, they are human. Lana is my eldest, she's seventeen and very high spirited! She's a lot like you in that way." Darlene laughed a little, but soon stopped when her mother didn't respond, so she continued "she's not taking her change so good as Jarred is. He's my son and my second child. He's a lot like his father, with brown hair and eyes, a tan and he is always off getting into mischief!"

Demona just continued to sit there with an expressionless face, not giving her daughter the smallest of consideration, "and I suppose that they're mother conveniently forgot to tell them about who and what she really is? How fitting?"

Darlene looked down at her feet, almost as if she were ashamed "I'm afraid that I never intended to tell them, I never expected this to happen."

Demona's eyes flared red for a minute then she growled "what happened to your husband?" She sneered. "Your human lover run away with someone else?"

Darlene's own eyes flared red as she glared at her mother with death in her eyes "he's dead! He died in a car crash a few months ago"

Demona didn't look as if she had expected that answer. Her eyes cooled down and she looked apologetic, but she didn't say sorry, "oh, really?" Then Demona took on another hard look and sneered, once more, "how can you be sure that he didn't fake it and that he's not running around with another NORMAL human female, right this minute?"

Darlene snarled, leaped at her and tackled her to the floor. Demona threw her off, but Darlene was ready and instantly jumped back to her feet, "I remember your warrior lessons all too clearly mother! You taught me well!"

Demona snarled and circled her daughter, waiting for her to make another move "why did you come back?" She screamed "If you didn't need me any more then why did you come back?"

Darlene lowered her arms and the fire left her eyes as she shed a tear "because of the spell. When it seemed to start wearing off a few months ago. I decided to tell the kids the truth about who and what I really was, but I know that they wouldn't believe me. So I decided to change myself back into a gargoyle to show them as prove." Darlene realised that she was just repeating herself so she cut to the chase "in short. I can't recast the spell mother and I don't know what to do. You're the best sorceress in the world and I…" she reached out a hand, beseechingly, towards her "I need help?"

Demona's eyes were unfortunately not very caring at that moment "and what do you want me to do?" Demona got up and turned her back on her "You expect me to help you? After all that you did to me?"

Demona didn't turn around, but the heartbreak in her voice was hard to miss "I loved you! I cared for you and you repaid me with betrayal and PAIN!"

Darlene wiped a few tears that were threatening to spill "I didn't want to come here, but I had no choice because my children and I are desperate. But even before that! Life for us was just going from bad to worse. First my husband and one true love, Paul died. Then we lost most of our money and I had no job, not that I had any job skills and the bank had threatened to take our mortgage and to top it all off… the spell wore off and now, we're gargoyles!"

Demona turned around, sharply with a smug look on her face "oh, so that's why you've come... for money!"

Darlene looked at her mother with a look of vile amusement "mother? Look at me! Even if I were able to get money from you then how do you suppose I would go about spending it? Maybe I could stroll into the bank and pay off my bills, in the middle of the night and start a panic? What use does a gargoyle have for cash?"

Demona sneered "why don't you get your precious little children to do it for you? Since they're infected with human blood then I'm sure that they would be able to figure out a way to get some money?"

Darlene didn't respond to that, she just reached into her purse that she had brought with her and pulled out three photographs "would you like to see their pictures?"

Without waiting for an answer, she shoved them into Demona's talons and stood with her arms crossed, waiting for her mother to look.

Demona eyed her daughter, warily, but decided to humour her a little by glimpsing at the pictures. The photos showed three children! "Three?" She asked with a raised eye ridge.

"Oh yeah" Darlene said, looking embarrassed "I forgot to tell you about her. The baby is Gem, she's 6 months old and a right little darling if ever there was one."

Demona snorted "how fitting for you to forget. You seem to be doing a lot of that, these days?" Demona turned away at that moment and whispered "I've seen your precious little brats and I've heard your excuses, now get out!"

Darlene felt her heart tearing "mother please?"

"I... I said get out!"

Darlene tried desperately to reach her, not willing to fail a second time "I'm sorry for what I did to you. But would you have accepted Paul? Can you honestly tell me that you would have accepted Paul with open wings and allowed us to live together in peace?"

Demona turned to spare her a hateful glance and growled "I would have killed him!"

Darlene exclaimed, almost triumphantly "exactly!" Then she stared at Demona with her wings closed around her and her arms crossed "still wondering why I left?"

Demona snarled viciously, but did not attack "How could you… with a human? After everything that they've done to us and our kind including your father?"

Darlene sighed sadly "mother? I never knew him and there were no other gargoyles, but you and I. If I had stayed then I would have been doomed to spend the rest of my life alone and acting as your dog!"

Demona spun round and marched up to Darlene with her eyes blazing "I never treated you like a dog!"

"But you did, mother, maybe you didn't mean to, but you did. You had me catering to your every need. I had to keep telling you that I loved you so that you wouldn't feel lonely or depressed."

Demona didn't take her angry glare off of her "then perhaps I should have kept you on a tighter leash then?"

Darlene raised her head high "say what you will mother because I don't care anymore! I've had a good life and I don't regret any of it! Paul was the best mate that any woman could ever hope for! He gave me three glorious children whom I look upon with pride every day and night!"

She then took on a dreamy look "I saw the sun. I've made friends! I had a life!"

Demona no longer glared at her, but she wasn't smiling either "and what about me? I lost my child and I never used to see the sun."

Darlene looked away with a heave of regret "that was the one thing that I did regret most of all mother. Something that I have regretted for all these years and probably will still do so for the rest of my life?"

Demona didn't take any notice and carried on, her voice sounded like it was almost breaking "I had no friends, no clan. You were my life and I lost you!"

Darlene whimpered. "I had a good life mother and I was very happy, but not completely happy. As happy as my life was, I wasn't nor would I ever have been totally happy because you weren't there with me… with us."

Demona swallowed and snapped at her "and is that supposed to make me feel better?"

Darlene looked at her through misty eyes "I've never stopped missing you mother and if there had been any other way for me and Paul to stay then I would have taken it instantly! I never wanted to leave you and every day, I try to raise my children in the same loving way that you did with me, but not without with the same hatred that you had inside of u for humans for so long!"

Demona clenched her paws and whispered, hotly, through her fangs "get… out and leave me alone. I don't want you back in my life anymore, neither now nor ever again."

Darlene felt as though she had just been stabbed through the heart "won't you at least, come and meet your grandchildren? They so want to meet their grandmother."

Demona fierce stare was unyielding "I don't care! You know that I hate humans."

"So? I want you to meet them and despite what you may think mother. Humans have been good to me, but your too proud and stubborn to admit it." Her eyes shone red as she roared "face it! You were wrong!"

Demona roared back at her "I WAS NEVER WRONG! THEY MURDERED TWO OF MY CLANS, YOUR FATHER AND NOW I FIND THAT THEY STOLE BOTH OF MY DAUGHTERS AS WELL!"

Darlene was so angry at her behaviour that she failed to notice her mother's slip up about 'both of her daughters'. "YOUR JUST SCARED THAT THERES A CHANCE THAT ALL THE CENTURIES THAT YOUVE SPENT, TRYING TO KILL THE HUMAN RACE HAS ALL BEEN FOR NOTHING!"

Darlene took a breath "and you know what? You're right! It has all been for nothing!"

Demona suddenly raced across the room and slapped her around the face.

Darlene growled, but she did not take her eyes off her mom and continued to stare defiantly at her.

Demona gasped through haggard breaths "get… out… now!"

Darlene either didn't hear her or she just wouldn't listen, "what have you earned mother? After centuries of hunting and trying to eradicate the human race... What has it got you… nothing!"

"I never want to see you again." Demona growled "take your worthless children and your sorry self and go and find some other pathetic human instead!"

Darlene rattled on. "Look at yourself! You're practically a hermit, living in a drab mansion with no one, but yourself for company and the only thing that keeps you going is your revenge for something that you caused in the first place."

"I am the only one that I can trust in this world." Demona said "I used to trust you, but now I see that I was wrong."

Darlene turned around to leave, but stopped "let me ask you a few things before I go? Who betrayed the castle to the Vikings? Who created the hunter in the 1st place? And who betrayed Macbeth to Canmore that lead to the deaths of your second clan?"

Demona snarled again, but this time, she acted as well as spoke and grabbed her daughter by the throat. "You have ten seconds to get out of my home!"

Darlene grabbed her arm and, in judo style, threw her off and into the corner of the room. "I'm not the same little girl that you used to sing to mother! Remember?"

"Ten… Nine!"

Darlene braced herself for another attack that she feared might be her last. As good a fighter as she was, she was no match for her mother. No one except for Macbeth was.

"If you want to fight me then go right ahead. I won't stop you."

"Eight!"

"But stop lying to yourself!"

"Seven… Six!"

Darlene walked over to the fireplace and picked up a sword from the mantle, the same one that her mother used to teach her with.

"Five!"

Darlene tried one last time "I'm not going to leave you again mother! I made that mistake a long time ago and I've regretted it ever since. I won't repeat myself. Please don't shut me out mother. Let me back into your life, both my children and me. You don't have to be alone anymore."

Demona paused "… four… three."

Darlene rose in the traditional battle stance and awaited her mother to enter the battlefield.

Demona started to slow down on the countdown "two… two and a half."

Darlene started to cry again "I'm sorry that it had to come down to this, really I am. But if this is the only way that you know then so be it!"

Demona's body began to shake "one."

Darlene whispered in a voice, so small that Demona almost didn't hear it "I love you."

Demona's voice spoke up again, but this time, there was no misreading or denying the quivering shakes in her voice that promised tears. "This is your last chance" she spoke as tears began rolling down her cheeks "please… just."

Demona fell to her knees and cried her heart out "just leave me alone!"

Darlene dropped the sword and ran to her mother "NO! Not now… not ever again! I will never leave you alone again!"

Demona sobbed into her long lost child's arms.

0000000000

Demona, nervously, ran her talons through her thick red mane and paced the room. It was getting close to 8pm! 'What's keeping them' she thought?

After her embarrassing breakdown last night, she and her daughter had spent many hours talking about what they had both been doing since their separation. She had even told her about her plans to kill the human race, a thing that she now regretted with all her heart. As long as she lived, she would never forget the look on her child's face when Demona had told her about when she attempted to commit genocide. It was the same look that Angela had worn on that very same night!

But instead of leaving as Demona had expected her to, she had cried, which in a way, was even worse. Then Darlene had pulled her mother into a big bear hug and sobbed "I'm sooo sorry, mother. This is my entire fault! If I had never left you then none of this would ever have happened!" She wailed.

Demona could do nothing, but sit there in shock as she slowly raised her arms around her child and held her, rocking back and forth, like she used to when Darlene was a hatchling.

After a few hours, once all of their truths had come out and all the crying had past. Demona decided right there and then that Darlene and her children should come and live with her. It was the only option as Darlene and her kids had nowhere else to go because they couldn't go back to Los Angeles.

Then again they could have gone to the Eyrie, to Goliath. 'No!' She couldn't have gone there because she hadn't told her daughter about him yet! She had told her that she had been fighting a gargoyle clan that she had come into disputes with, but she didn't say who the clan was!

'Had her daughter abandoned her once again? Did she really believe that she would go and harm her own grandchildren despite after every thing they had been through last night… probably?'

Demona was about to screech in rage and pick up the nearest breakable object that she could get her paws on when she heard a whooshing sounds from outside that notified the presence of a gargoyle. She paused and held her breath. After a few moments, there was a knock on her balcony door, so she went to open it.

There, standing on the outside was a little male hatchling that looked, no older than 10 years (in gargoyle years). He was blue, like her, with a pair of dark, berry like, eyes and equally dark hair! He had a merry face that shone when he smiled at her "hello?"

Demona looked up and saw her daughter, carrying a baby hatchling with her and a young beautiful Gargess walked in behind her that looked so much like Darlene when she was young that it made Demona's heart ache. 'This must be Lana' she thought.

She turned back to the cheerful halfling that was her grandson and granted him with a warm smile, something that she had done for years.

"Hello mother" Darlene said and pointed to each of her offspring in turn. She pointed to the young male first. "This is Jarred."

Demona looked into his eyes, which were round and dark like berries and so clear, "hello child and welcome to your new home. Please, make yourself comfortable."

The boy grinned and immediately ran past her to explore her… correction. They're new home! Demona then came to realise that she wasn't alone anymore and that made her feel… good!

The beautiful young female came in next and turned up her nose at everything "a little into the fairy tales a bit much aren't you?"

Demona gave her a long stare before answering "I've had a lot of experience with it and it's something that you owe a lot to because without it. You and your siblings would most likely, never have been born."

Lana glared at her, but turned around and sat down on the couch without saying anything.

Darlene gave a half smile, "that's Lana. Try and be patient with her, she's had a lot to deal with in the past few days."

Demona couldn't help, but smirk a little at her granddaughter's attitude. 'Darlene was right' she thought 'she is just like me.' She remembered all too clearly about how she used to yell, screech and sulk at the elders of her clan when she was half her age. 'May the Great Dragon help us, if she turns out worse than me?'

Demona grinned then stopped as someone said "hey Grandma?"

At first, Demona didn't know whom the boy was talking to before she realised that it was her whom he was addressing.

"Err yes?" She replied uncertainly.

"What's this thing here?" He held up a small statuette of a female gargoyle.

Demona instantly ran forward and grabbed it from him "DON'T EVER TOUCH THIS WITHOUT ASKING FIRST!" She yelled. The boy instantly backed off from her in fear and Darlene marched over to Demona and took the statuette from her.

"Mother! I remember this thing. You told me that it was some kind of magical talisman yet I have yet to see you actually use it."

Demona snorted "I am just waiting for the right time."

"Magic?" Jarred asked, his face lit up and began asking tonnes of questions "what kind of magic? Are you a witch? Can you do magic?"

Demona stared at the boy in amazement. 'Doesn't this kid ever shut up?'

"Ahh, it's all just a bunch of baloney!" Lana's voice came from the couch as she read from a magazine.

Demona looked at her with a dry look on her face and answered with a voice to match "I take it that your own child doesn't believe in magic daughter?"

Darlene sighed miserably and nodded. Lana had never really believed in magic, even as a child and the latest happenings in her life certainly hadn't helped to convince her. In fact, they had just strengthened her belief in magic was nothing more than mere circus trickery and a load of hogwash.

"She's a good kid. She's just got a lot of anger in her, which I still say she gets from you!"

Demona smirked "well, maybe she'll adapt in time? Perhaps I should think about giving her magic lessons?"

Darlene froze "err mother… are you sure that's wise?"

Demona nodded "I'm positive."

"HEY" Lana yelled, "I am right here, you know? You don't talk about me as if I weren't here and I am NOT taking any stupid magic lessons!"

"Yes you are!" Demona barked "it would do you good to see some _real _magic done and learn about it instead of those foolish humans prancing about in capes and fairy costumes, playing with wands and bunny rabbits. With me, you shall see _real _magic!"

"I… don't… want… to!"

"Tough!" Demona made her point clearly and when it looked like Lana was going to speak up, she gave her granddaughter a warning growl and a bright red glow from her eyes. Lana soon shut her mouth and kept it shut.

"HA HA!" Jarred sneered at his sister, which Lana responded with a red-hot glare… literally.

"And you… are going to take them right along with her!"

Jarred's face fell in despair "awwww… don't tell that I've got to take lessons with her?"

"HEY! I'm not too thrilled about it either buddy!" Lana shouted from her seat.

"Yeah, but you not me and I'm going to be having lessons with you so that makes me waaaaaaaay off worse than you!"

Lana looked as though she was going to spill blood so Darlene stepped in and told them to put a lid on it.

Demona sighed and put a talon to her head 'was Darlene this bad?' She thought 'I don't remember her ever being this noisy. Mind you, she never had any siblings to fight with."

The baby suddenly started crying, which left Darlene with three noisy children.

She turned her head towards the crying of the baby as she saw her daughter trying to calm the youngest member of her family as well as dealing with the two older arguing ones. Demona smiled at the baby and went forward with her arms open ""here, let me take her" Demona asked and held out her arms for the baby.

Darlene quirked an eyebrow ridge, but handed over her youngster to her. Demona handled the baby carefully and gently stroked her hair as she had done once with her own daughter so long ago. She quietly hummed an old tune that the mothers of her clan had sung to her and the child soon quietened down.

Darlene smirked "I had forgotten about that old tune. I remember when you used to sing it to me when I was a hatchling."

Demona lost her smile for a little bit as memories of Darlene's childhood came back to her in a flood along with the memories if when she supposedly died. But the cute little goo's and gurgles of the little darling child in her arms soon made her forget all that. She kissed the fore ridge of the baby and handed her back to her mother. "I take it that this is Gem?"

"Yep" Darlene said proudly "she's six months old and since she changed into a gargoyle, she's been hard trying to keep a hold on because she's always off exploring."

Demona burst out laughing "like mother, like daughter. You never could keep still for even a second when you were a hatchling."

Darlene grumbled "and I suppose you were as still as a statue?"

Demona smirked and covered her mouth with her hand "that's for me to know and for you to find out."

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**Next Night: **

Demona, in human guise, set up all the required items out on the table and waited a few more minutes. She had decided that she should start training her grandchildren in the ways of magic as soon as possible. The sooner the better, because then they would have a more decent chance of defending themselves against an enemy. At least until Demona and Darlene had taught them more about fighting, which was something that the children just weren't ready for.

Demona removed her red business suit and changed into her usual gargoyle garb and waited. A few moments later, she doubled over in pain as she felt her insides twist and turn as her body went through its nightly transformation.

Meanwhile, her daughter and grandchildren awoke from their stone sleep and roared to the heavens as their stone skin break free from their bodies.

Demona smiled in pride as she heard her daughter's loud catlike screech. She remembered how she had looked forward to hearing it every night because it gave her some feelings of hope.

Her granddaughter Lana had the same screech in her. 'Like mother, like daughter' Demona thought to herself, fondly.

She waited until they started to come into her room. Jarred, she had found out, was a bit of a telly freak and would always run to see what was on before anything else. Fortunately, she had taken precautions and pulled the plug out of her television set.

As for Lana, she immediately went to her own private corner where she would start reading her magazines and doing her hair. Demona had stolen her hairbrush and hid it, somewhere in the house.

"WHERE'S MY HAIRBRUSH?" Lana yelled as Demona heard her turning over the furniture, looking for the item. She also heard Jarred as he desperately tried to turn the television set on, with little success.

Demona marched over to the other room and swung the door open. Her daughter Darlene was standing at the door, waiting for her and holding baby Gem, with a smirk on her face. Darlene always had been quite observant so she must have guessed what her mother had done.

Demona replied with simply a shrug and then stood before the two hatchlings "okay Lana and Jarred. Tonight is the night of your first magic lesson! Follow me."

Lana turned her head from her search for her make-up bag "I already told you that I don't want to do any stupid magic!"

Demona turned back to her "and I already told you to FOLLOW ME!" She roared at them, leaving the children to cautiously follow her and do as she said. They certainly didn't want to anger their elder, especially not a seven-foot gargoyle with razor sharp claws and fangs.

Lana and Jarred got up and followed their grandmother out of the living room and into their grandmother's study. Once they got there, they saw a mixture of unusual items spread out on the table. A bronze bowl with strange marking on it, some bottle filled with different coloured mixtures and some herbs in packets.

Demona walked to the other end of the table and beckoned them to sit down. Lana and Jarred did as they were told and sat.

Demona then pulled out a large heavy book from behind her and turned to a page. She slid the book over the table to the kids and pointed to the page, she had opened to. "You will follow these instructions carefully. This is a very simple spell that has been designed for newcomers to magic. If all goes as follows then there shouldn't be any problems, assuming that you follow the spell correctly? If there are any problems then tell me!"

Demona then sat down and crossed her arms to wait.

Lana cautiously took the book and read the page that she was supposed to do. It all seemed pretty straightforward, except for the part where Lana would have to read the words out loud.

Jarred seemed annoyingly cheerful and dove right into the spell. He began placing the herbs in the bowl and pouring in some of the strange coloured mixtures in bottles. He mashed the ingredients together and then pointed to a box of matches "Lana, you'll have to light this up, because mom doesn't let me fool around with matches, remember?"

Lana sighed and picked up the matchbox, lit a match and tossed it into the bowl. The bowl instantly went up, like a light and blazed a brilliant golden blue colour. Lana looked to her grandmother for help, but Demona just stared at her, expectantly. She obviously wanted Lana to finish the spell, herself.

Lana gulped and read the spell words from the book. As she paused, she noticed the flames getting higher and out of control. Lana and Jarred scrambled away from the table as the flames licked their faces. Lana looked to Demona in desperation, but still, Demona did nothing, but sit and stare.

Feeling angry, Lana looked at the book again and begin to speak Old Latin words. She tried to sound as if she were sure of what she was doing, but her voice wavered and nothing happened. The flames kept getting higher and higher and even Demona seemed to be finally getting up out of her chair to help. But Lana wouldn't hear of it, she hated it when she was presented with a problem that she couldn't solve especially when it was as simple as just saying a few words.

She glared at the book in front of her and repeated the words, this time in more confidence. When still, nothing happened, she repeated the words again and again until finally, there was a bright flash and the flames died away.

When the spots cleared from Lana's eyes, she looked back to the bowl and saw something inside it. Before she could get a proper look however, Jarred dive his hand in and pulled out whatever it was.

Jarred turned and rubbed the item on his clothing and exclaimed "its some kind of amulet!" The Amulet had a circle of gold with a blue sapphire in it that blazed and glared like it was alive.

Lana turned to Demona with a query on her face, but stopped when she saw her grandmother's joyous expression.

Demona exclaimed happily "congratulations my children! You've completed your first test in the mystical arts! The art of co-operation! You worked together to find a way to complete the spell and for a sorcerer or sorceress, they must sometimes work together with others to solve a problem."

She stood up to reveal a fire extinguisher that was hidden below the table, under her wing. She pointed at the amulet in Jarred's hand "the amulet is yours Lana! Since you were the one who cast the spell. I made this entire spell up from scratch to give you both a good start and so far, I must say that I am impressed! You were both pretty good and as for you Jarred… you were excellent in mixing the ingredients together and although I don't have an amulet for you, what would you say to… a new TV with cable put in your very own room?"

To be honest, Demona was finding this whole situation very amusing. Who would have thought that she, of all people, would be teaching her grandchildren about co-operating? Still, she had gone through a similar test with the Archmage when she first requested to learn about sorcery, though it turned out that he didn't care whether she had passed or not. He had just wanted her so that she could do some stealing for him.

Jarred's eyes instantly lit up and he shoved the amulet into Lana's hands and ran up to hug his grandmother.

Lana stood with the amulet in her hands, twisting and turning it. It truly was a beautiful gem. Jarred left the room to go and watch some telly while Demona walked up to her and took the gem and placed it around her neck.

She looked Lana in the eye "it has been the tradition of all gargoyles that when they begin teaching a youngster, some of the lessons that they've learned in life. They must give them a gift as a symbol of their friendship and co-operation because only with co-operation can the young one truly learn anything!"

Lana could do nothing, but finger the gem around her neck until Demona lifted a talon to her face and lifted her head to look at her. Demona rewarded her with a small smile "I know that what you have been through has been awfully traumatic Lana, but its not so bad once you get used to it. Being a gargoyle is a truly wonderful and rewarding thing, you just have to learn to accept it!"

Lana thought about the same thing that her mother had said and suddenly wondered where she was. She turned and looked at the doorway and found her mother, watching her with those big sorrowful eyes of hers. Lana didn't know what to do so she just walked up to her mother and looked at her.

Darlene caressed her daughter's face and hugged her. Though Lana did not hug back, she did not push her away either. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

0000000000

**One Week Later: **

"But, mom, can't we come, too?" Jarred whined as his mother and grandmother got ready to leave.

"No, sweetie. I told you that your grandmother and I have important work to do. We're going to do some research at your grandmother's company, on some spells that we think, might make you human again. So we need to get a lot of work done and… I'm sorry Jarred, but when we want to get some work done, we just can't do it while you're around!"

Jarred grumbled "can I help it if I like to sound my opinions?"

"No, but you can help by doing something useful like sticking a sock down your throat or something?" Lana called out from her room.

Jarred was about to shout back a reply, but Demona intervened.

"Daughter, I believe it's time to go?"

Darlene nodded and kissed her son goodnight "don't go messing up the house okay? I don't want to find your grandmother's study in flames again, okay?"

"Yes mom."

"Good boy."

Darlene kissed her son, one final time causing Jarred to wipe his face furiously in embarrassment.

"We'll see you later tonight, okay Lana?" Darlene called out to her eldest, but only received an "hmmm" from her. Demona looked at Darlene, but she just shrugged "leave her. This is natural for her, even before she went gargoyle!"

The two of them left, leaving Jarred to, wickedly, rub his hands together in glee.

"Hey Lana! You wanna go out for a glide?"

"Hmmm… let's see? Option number one, stay indoor and surf the net, listen to music and not talk to you or option number two? Spend the night with you and your whiny voice… sorry, but there's no contest kid!"

"So you'll come out with me then?"

"NOOOOO!"

Jarred reeled back from his sister's loud, angry voice "okay, fine, but if anything should happen to me then don't go blaming yourself?"

"I won't!"

"Good! Because mom and grandma will do all that for you!"

He waited a few moments before Lana came marching out, glaring at him "okay, fine! Where'd you want to go?"

Jarred shrugged "I just thought that we might take a cruise around the city and practise our gliding a bit. You've barely done any at all so I'm waaaay ahead of you."

Lana sneered at him "wanna bet?"

"Okay!"

0000000000

"Whooooaaaaa" Lana screamed as she fell through the night sky and almost ended up, colliding, with a skyscraper.

Her brother Jarred laughed out loud at her.

Lana glared daggers at her younger sibling and would have gladly barrelled herself right into him if it weren't for their baby sister Gem whom he was carrying in his arms.

"HEY! Check that out?" Jarred cried out and pointed with his talon.

Lana looked to where he was pointing and gasped at what she was seeing. It was a castle! A real castle that was built right on top of a skyscraper. Lana hovered in the air for a few moments, but before the currents could pull her away, she noticed Jarred soaring off with baby Gem in his arms "where do you think you're going?"

Jarred looked back at her as though she was a complete idiot "to go and see the castle of course!"

"Are you nuts? Mom and Grandma would kill us. What if someone catches us while we're there?"

"Aww no one will ever know. We'll be in and out of there before anyone even knows we're coming. Now quit being a baby and let's go!"

"Who are you calling a baby, shrimp?"

0000000000

"I can't believe you talked me into this?" Lana squirmed.

Jarred have his sister an annoyed look "you decided to come so you learn to live with it."

The young female and the two hatchlings scaled the wall of the Eyrie building, until they reached a window near the top and climbed in.

"Okay" Lana exhaled "we're in, now let's go home."

"We've haven't even seen anything yet. Don't be such a scaredy cat."

Lana grumbled, but followed her brother. If he got into trouble then SHE would be the one to pay for it.

They walked down a few corridors, keeping their eyes and ears open for any sound that could indicate someone nearby. Finally, they came to a double door, which Jarred was, of course, getting ready to open, but Lana quickly stopped him.

"Hey what's the…!"

"Shhhhh," Lana shushed him quickly.

Jarred put Gem down on the floor as he strained to listen through the door. Together, they listened as they heard voices saying… "Goliath, I still say we should continue with patrolling. Who knows when someone out there, might need our help?"

Lana listened with keen interest. The one, who was speaking now, had a nice voice.

"Brooklyn, I'm not saying that I don't understand. I would be more than glad to return us all to patrol, but what with the Quarrymen out for our blood, the safest thing for us to do would be to remain here."

'Ohhhh,,' Lana thought 'now that guy has got one hell of a sexy voice.' It was so deep and masculine! It made her skin tingle. She would give anything to see the guy who was speaking on the other side of this door.

Another voice spoke up. Female, this time, she said "Brooklyn, I agree with father. If we start patrolling again then all we'll do is get ourselves killed."

Lana pressed her ear to the door, trying listen better, while Jarred was doing the same. "Can you hear what there saying?" She asked.

"Hang on." Jarred whispered "I think I hear… "

Suddenly the door, widely, opened and Lana and Jarred fell right through into, what must be, the great hall or something. They fell together in a heap and looked up at what was, without a doubt, the biggest creature ever to walk the planet.

The thing was obviously a gargoyle because of its wings. It was a dark lavender colour, over seven feet tall and built completely out of muscle. It raised an eye ridge at them and crossed its mighty arms across its broad masculine chest. "May we help you?" It asked in the same voice that Lana had, just a few moments ago thought was the sexiest voice she had ever heard.

Both Lana and Jarred knew there was only one thing they could do now. So in perfect chorus, they said together "BYE!" And took off down the corridor where they came from.

0000000000

"Who the Hell were they?" Lexington asked in an astonished voice.

"I dunno" replied Brooklyn "but, I've got dibs on the girl!"

"Uh uh! Not if I get there first, slow poke!"

Both Lexington and Brooklyn raced off in the direction where the two strangers had gone down, while Angela frowned at their antics and Goliath just shrugged at her and ran down a different way.

0000000000

"Shit! What are we going to do?" Lana panicked.

"You're asking me?" Jarred asked, disbelieving "I'm only eight years old for Christ's sake! How would I know?"

"Great! Fine lot of help you… oh SHIT!"

Jarred slid to a halt "what?"

Lana looked at him with a look of pure fear and horror "we… forgot… GEM!"

Jarred froze and stood still "oh crap!"

"We've gotta… "

_"Hey Brook! I think I heard something. Check down that way!" _

Lana spun around to the sound of the voices that were coming closer towards them. "Shit! Quick, in here." She motioned to a curtain and pulled Jarred in with her, behind it.

A few moments later, a crimson red gargoyle with a beak and a short green, bald one that looked a little like a goblin came running past.

_"I think they went this way?" _

_"Did you see that gargess? Man, what a hottie!" _

Lana felt herself blush.

Once they passed, Jarred moved out from behind the curtain and turned to Lana "okay Miss hottie! Let's go and find Gem and get the Hell out of here!"

Lana nodded and followed, but… where would they look first? Where would a six-month-old baby go in a skyscraper castle?

0000000000

Baby Gem wandered around the castle floor on her hands and knees wondering where all the people had gone? She crawled around on her new gargoyle arms and legs, which propelled her a lot faster than her old human ones did.

She listened for her big brother and sister, but didn't hear anything or anyone. Not that she was in any hurry to get back home. She hadn't been here to this strange big place before, so she wanted to get some exploring done before she left.

She rounded a corner and stopped as she slammed her head into a soft blue wall. She looked up and found herself starring into a pair of plain white eyes that belonged to a strange looking thing that she hadn't seen before.

The thing looked down at her, lowered its head and sniffed at her.

Gem giggled, as the thing smelt her and tickled her with its nose. It then proceeded to lick her across the cheek and, unintentionally, covered her entire head with saliva.

Gem giggled and tried to grab onto the things large ears and play with them. The thing then bent over and picked her up, in its mouth, by her tiny wings and carried her away.

0000000000

"Och, there be nothing on," Hudson moaned, as he tossed the remote control down onto the floor and leaned back in his favourite armchair.

A moment later he heard, what could no doubt be the paw-steps of Bronx, his ever-faithful gargbeast. "Hello Bronx. Been in the kitchen after another bone?"

He reached his paw over to scratch behind one of Bronx's ears, but ended up touching something that was definitely not Bronx. Hudson jerked his head in surprise and gasped at what he saw.

There, dangling from Bronx's mouth, was a little baby girl hatchling, barely two years old in gargoyle years, with a crop of white blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes.

Hudson stared at her in disbelief.

He shook himself a few times and opened and closed his eyes a number of times before coming to the conclusion that he wasn't seeing things. 'Unless Angela's been keeping secrets from us' he thought 'I think we might have a stranger in the castle tonight?' He held out his paws and gently took the hatchling from Bronx.

Bronx whined and nuzzled the baby with his nose, to which the child giggled in delight. Gargbeasts were instinctually protective of youngsters, especially babies because they were the most helpless of all and needed the most protection.

Hudson held the baby in his lap and looked her over. Aside from the amount of spit that covered her, no doubt from Bronx, she seemed fine. Hudson used his sleeve to clean her up as best as he could. "Well now" he said, "ain't you a pretty sight I'd wager?"

She was really was a little darling as she looked up at him with wide-open eyes, filled with curiosity and wonder. "Hmmm… " Hudson mused. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that I had seen this wee one before or at least someone who looked like her?"

The child really did look familiar. Her appearance matched that of another gargoyle hatchling that he had helped taken care of, centuries ago, but he couldn't, for the live of him, remember which hatchling that had been?

"Och, well there be no point in reminiscing now" Hudson got up from his armchair and cradled the little one in his arm before leaving with Bronx right behind him. "Come on, Bronx. Let's go and see what Goliath has to say about this?"

0000000000

"Can't you do anything right?" Lana demanded as she and Jarred ran down the hallways, searching for their baby sister.

Jarred glared at his sibling "you were here with me all the time SIS! Why didn't YOU make sure that she was with us when we were running?"

Lana was about to bite back a remark, but stopped when she ran right smack into a woman in a red bomber jacket and toppled them both over. "OOF!" They both cried out.

Lana looked down at the copper skinned woman as she stared right back at her in shock. Lana was about to other her a hand up when she heard a loud bellowing cry and turned to see the huge lavender gargoyle come bounding up the corridor towards them.

"OOOHHHH SHITTTTTTT!"

Lana grabbed Jarred and ran in the opposite direction while the lavender giant ran to the fallen woman.

0000000000

"Elisa," Goliath asked, concerned. "Are you all right? Did they harm you in any way?"

Elisa groaned and got back up "no. I'm all right. I think those kids were just not looking where they were going and ran right smack into me?" Elisa shook her head and then suddenly realised… "By the way? Who the Hell were those kids?"

Goliath shrugged his massive shoulders "I do not know. We were in the hall discussing what we should do about patrols and the quarrymen when I heard something from behind one of the doors. When I opened it, those two came tumbling out and we've been chasing them ever since."

Elisa smirked "getting a little slow in your old age Goliath?"

Goliath frowned, "I assure you that my speed and accuracy is as sound tonight as it has always been!"

Elisa grinned, but took on a more serious tone as she looked to where the new gargoyles had gone. "We'd better go after them?"

"Yes!" Without another word, Goliath took off on all fours and raced after the children with Elisa rushing to catch up with him.

0000000000

"Ain't ye a cute one?" Hudson cooed to the young child "but lets not having you playing with me beard alright?"

The baby girl gurgled happily and continued to play with Hudson's beard, to which Hudson chuckled and had to pull her fingers out of it when they got stuck in the hairs.

Suddenly… a young female gargess and a male hatchling came running down the hallway at full speed, only to come to a skidding halt when they saw him.

Hudson stared at them in mild surprise "well! This is a night for surprises then isn't it? We not only have a bundle dropped on our protective, but a wee boy and a right pretty gargess if ever there was one?"

The female and young boy looked at him oddly for a moment before the female spoke… and she did not sound happy.

"Okay! Let's get one thing straight" she shouted "the names Lana! It's not a pretty wee gargess or a Miss hottie or anything else for that matter… okay!"

She then indicated to the boy " oh and this is my brother Jarred."

Hudson actually took a step back from her outburst and raised his free hand in defence "easy now lass? I was merely stating a compliment, I did not mean for it to be an insult."

Lana did not seem impressed and was about to say more when she finally noticed Gem gurgling in the old gargoyle's arms. "HEY GRAMPS! THAT'S MY BABY!"

Hudson growled at the name 'Gramps' and that was his biggest mistake as the two youngsters mistook his growl as a threat and rushed right at him and THAT proved to be THEIR biggest mistake.

Hudson saw them coming a mile away and easily sidestepped Jarred as he dived at his legs, intending to topple him over. Hudson then placed one of his large feet on Jarred's back to keep him in place. As for the female, she just tried the old fashioned rush on approach. Inside, Hudson smirked at their efforts; it was obvious that these hatchlings had neither experience nor any training on the battlefield whatsoever.

After quickly switching the baby to his other arm, he grabbed the female's wrist and twisted it behind her back.

"Now then" he said calmly "shall we calm down and talk about this peacefully, eh?"

Lana snarled and tried to break free of his steel grip before finally succumbing "okay fine, I give in."

Hudson let her go, but he didn't take his eye off her or her friend for one second. He then crouched down and held out a hand to the boy to offer him a lift up. Jarred eyed him curiously, looking for any signs of deception, but after a while he took Hudson's hand and allowed him to help him up.

Jarred stood up and immediately went to stand by Lana's side "are you okay?" He asked her as she rubbed her arm.

Lana shot him an annoyed look "yeah, I'm just peachy. I just love being practically pulled out of my home when I didn't even want to go out. Gliding into buildings, breaking and entering someone's home, leaving Gem in a castle full of monsters and then finally getting captured by them myself!"

Jarred cringed. "You could have stayed home, you know?"

Lana looked like she was about to throttle him so Hudson decided to step in and act as referee "alright, now there will be enough of that!" he barked as the two shied away from him. Just then, Gem started to bawl and cry, so Lana went up to take her from him.

Hudson was at first; cautious about handing over the wee bairn to anyone, but if this young one really did belong to her then who was he to say who should have her. Besides, if she tried anything then he would be right there to try and stop them.

He handed the child to Lana and watched as she cuddled and soothed the child. The baby obviously knew her, plus there was a resemblance so chances are that she really was the hatchling's mother despite her youth. "You have a truly beautiful child lass."

Lana looked at him curiously for a second before her eyes widened in shock "wha… oh no, no, no, no. Gem isn't MY baby, she's my sister!"

"Oh then that explains why you seem so young to have a child, girl."

"Humph" Lana grumbled "first, it's 'my lady' and now its 'girl'?"

Just then, they heard a loud patter of feet coming their way from both sides and turned to see the small green gargoyle and the tall red one with the beak coming from their right. And the huge lavender one coming from their left.

"Ohhh… crap!"

0000000000

Goliath slowed down to a trot as he saw the intruders with Hudson and Brooklyn and Lexington coming to them from the other side. The male hatchling was looking a little grumpy and the female looked more than agitated. He couldn't place his talon on it, but there was something damn familiar about her face.

Brooklyn and Lexington stayed behind them, supposedly watching them for any kind of move that they might make. Though he suspected that they were more interested in watching the way that the girl moved instead of any moves that she or her companion made.

He noticed that the gargess had a baby now in her arms. Funny, he didn't recall seeing either of them with a baby before? He looked to Hudson to make sure that he was all right "Hudson?"

Hudson nodded to show he was fine and then waved his paw to the two youngsters "These be Lana and her younger siblings Jarred and Gem."

Goliath turned to the intruders and crossed his thick muscular arms over his broad chest and looked, questioningly, at them. "Well then, may I ask... what it was that you three were doing here in our home tonight?"

Jarred stepped behind Lana in fear and never took his hostile eyes off Goliath.

Lana however, took a brave step forward. Her mother had always taught her, never to show fear to an enemy otherwise he'll have you right where he wants you. "My name is Lana! This is my brother and sister, Jarred and Gem. Who are you?"

Goliath uncrossed his arms and bowed his head, respectfully, in front of her "I am Goliath, leader of the Wyvern clan whose home you have intruded." He pointed to Hudson, Bronx, Brooklyn and Lexington "This is Hudson, my mentor. Bronx, our watchdog, Brooklyn, my second in command and Lexington."

Lana couldn't help, but notice the gapping jaws and goggle eyes of the two males as they stood, staring at her. 'Jeez' she thought 'haven't these guys ever seen a woman before?" But she smiled and said "hello" to them.

The little green one, Lexington, quickly came forward and stuck out his paw as a form of greeting "Hiya! Cool to meet you, I'm Lex and I guess, you could say that I'm the brains of the clan put together."

Lana raised an eyebrow at him. He obviously had a very high opinion of himself. But she was soon to discover that he wasn't the only one as the red beaked one, Brooklyn, came marching forward, not as fast as Lex, but he marched with his fists at his chest as a show of machismo.

'If this is what all male gargoyles are like then Grandma had better find the spell that makes me human again… FAST!'

Brooklyn soon came up to her and actually took her hand. "It's a real great pleasure to meet you Lana," he said smoothly as he kissed her hand. His kiss was surprisingly soft despite his beak and he was careful not to peck her. Suddenly he stopped and continued to stare at her hand.

At first Lana didn't know what his problem was and was about to ask him so, when she noticed his own hands. The guy only had four fingers! She looked around at the other gargoyles and saw that they were the same as well, plus they only had three talons on their feet, if you could call them feet. Whereas, she had five fingers and five toes, courtesy of her human genes, the only thing that she had left of her humanity that had remained with her after the transformation.

"Oh" she laughed, nervously, as Brooklyn looked up to give her a hard stare "I guess your wondering about the… uh… five and five toes thing huh?"

Brooklyn stepped back and the others all started to crowd around her and her family when they heard her say she had more than the usual number of talons for a gargoyle.

Goliath reached out with his paw, took her hand and checked. "What are you?"

Lana gulped and looked at Jarred for help, but he was too busy trying to keep Bronx from giving him a bath with his tongue.

"Err…" Lana stuttered " well… you see…"

Just then, the human woman that they had run into earlier, came running down the hallway, followed by a lavender female gargoyle. When she first saw her, Lana gasped. The female looked just like her grandmother except for her lavender colouring.

She noticed her looking at her and smiled, sweetly, at her "hello, I'm Angela."

Lana waved a hand at her, but turned back to the waiting eyes of the rest of the clan. They obviously wanted an explanation and she was going to have to be the one to give it to them.

Lana groaned to herself. 'Mom, grandma…where the Hell are you?'

0000000000

"I'm telling you that something is wrong!" Darlene cried as they raced through the air, back to the mansion.

Demona attempted to pick up speed to catch up with her wilful daughter "so they didn't answer our phone call… they might just have the CD player on too loud or something? It doesn't mean that there in trouble?"

"No! Lana knows better than that. Despite her acting real bitchy for the past few weeks. She knows better than to worry me like this especially when concerning her little brother and sister."

Demona sighed "alright! We'll go home and find out what's wrong, if there is anything wrong then maybe we can finally start on that precious research that you wanted me to do?"

Demona ended the last part rather aggressively. She wasn't too keen on the idea of helping her family be turned into humans. But her daughter had made it clear that if there was any way for her children to become human again then so be it! It was clear that Lana would never willingly accept life as a gargoyle so the only way to cure her of her… bitchiness, as Darlene called it? Was to give her what she wanted, which was her humanity, must as Demona despised it!

They finally arrived home and Darlene practically broke the door down as she raced into the mansion, calling out her children's names. "LANA! JARRED, where are you?"

Demona stood and waited in the living room before Darlene came running back out, her face filled with worry "there not here" She cried!

Demona's eyes widened in surprise. Apparently these children may have inherited the Wyvern clan's strength, but obviously they hadn't inherited the Wyvern clan's brains.

Meanwhile, Darlene was busy, frantically pacing the room, trying to find something… anything that could tell her where her children had gone?

"Daughter! Calm down, for heaven's sake! We will find where the children have got too? I'm sure that they haven't gone far."

Darlene, however, was far from calming down and continued her pacing. "But what about the Quarrymen? If the kids are out gliding then the Quarrymen might see them and… and… "

"ALRIGHT DARLENE, THAT'S ENOUGH!" Demona shouted over Darlene's helpless cries and then she carried on in a calmer tone. "As I said. I'm sure that the children are fine and if we just calm down and think clearly then I'm positive that we will find them! Okay?"

Darlene nodded and sat down with her head in her paws.

Demona didn't sit, but thought back to her own hatchling-hood nights when she went out on her own. What did she used to do? Where did she go?

"Darlene? Do the children go out a lot like this?"

Darlene sat up and answered. "Yes, actually. Well, mainly it's just Jarred, but Lana goes with him all the time so that she makes sure that he's safe. Especially if I tell her to do so!" She answered the last part with a grim smile and chuckled softly, but soon buried her face in her paws again, feeling useless. "He likes to explore a lot. Go and see new things or explore old building, things like that."

"Explore old… " Suddenly Demona stopped and thought 'oh god no!'

If Darlene was right about Jarred wanting to explore things like old buildings and if he went out tonight then… he would see the castle if he had not already seen it. Such a thing would be irresistible to a boy, his age. And if he did then he would, most likely, meet the clan!

Demona froze with fear. She had told Darlene about the things she had tried to do to the human race, but she hadn't told her about the clan. She didn't know what her daughter would say if she found out that she tried on numerous occasions to kill her own former clan?

"Mother? What's wrong?"

Demona looked into her daughter's eyes and saw the love and confusion in them. She also saw the dismay she felt at not knowing where her children were and the pain that went with it. At one time, not too long ago, she would have felt some sort of sick satisfaction at seeing this, considering that she herself had gone through the exact same thing when Darlene had left. But now, it filled her heart will ache, every time when she looked into her daughter's face.

Demona thought about Goliath and the rest of the clan and all the times she had tried to kill them. She knew that it was unlikely that she would get a warm greeting when she went to the castle. In fact, she wouldn't be surprised if they attacked first and asked her questions later? But… she couldn't stand to stay here and watch her daughter cry. Perhaps if she were lucky then she might be able to find Lana, Jarred and Gem without the clan seeing her and get them out of there, but she doubted it?

Slowly, Demona got up and walked to the balcony doors.

"Where are you going?" Darlene asked.

"Out! Stay here and I'll be back shortly." She mentally added 'I hope.'

0000000000

Meanwhile, back at the Eyrie. The clan was waiting for an explanation for the reason why their intruders had five fingers and five toes, whereas normal gargoyles only had four talons and three toes.

Goliath stood patiently with his arms crossed and the rest of them just stood in front of them, doing the same.

Lana stood, nervously with her tail twitching and Jarred by her side with baby Gem in his arms, still trying to fight off the merciless gargdog that wanted to give him a licking.

"Get away from me you big mutt!" Jarred snarled as he angrily shoved at the beast. Bronx, on the other hand, though he was just playing and in turn, patted him with his own large paw. A pat, which sent Jarred falling onto his back and causing Gem to slip from his grasp. But Lana was fortunately there to catch her. This gave Bronx, the perfect opportunity to pounce.

"Gaaaahhhh!" Jarred cried as Bronx placed his paws upon his chest, his large mass upon him and pinning him to the floor. Bronx then proceeded to give Jarred's face a thorough bath with his tongue.

"Get this mutt off of me!"

Lana couldn't help, but laugh at the sight she got. If anything, this Bronx was sure friendly and he apparently liked children… a lot!

Hudson smirked and walked over to the huge beast and gave his flank a smack "Alright, Bronx, that'll be enough of that. I think the lad has got the message that ye like him?"

Bronx whined sadly and slowly took his paws off the boy and backed away from him.

Jarred furiously wiped his face in disgust and brought his hand back, now covered in doggy drool, "eeeeeewwwwwww!"

Hudson smirked "Bronx apparently likes ye, lad! And I've always trusted Bronx's judgement of other people, but tell us? How is it that you have the human number of fingers and toes?"

Jarred glanced at Lana, obviously expecting her to do all the answering.

Lana frowned. 'Why couldn't I have been an only child?' she thought. "Our father was human," she said simply.

The clan gaped at her in shock. This was obviously a big surprise for them all. Lana recalled her grandmother saying that humans and gargoyles couldn't reproduce with one another. It was literally impossible as gargoyles laid eggs, whereas humans had babies.

"How is that possible?" Goliath asked. At the same time, the woman who had been introduced as detective Elisa Maza was staring at them with a look of what Lana would almost think of as… hope?

Lana thought about what she was going to say next, but couldn't think of anything. Should she tell these strangers about her background and her family's history? Why hadn't her grandmother told them about these gargoyles?

After a long and lengthy pause, Lana finally decided that she couldn't think of anything to tell these… people, except the truth. Besides, her grandmother was a gargoyle so they should be all right?

0000000000

Demona soared through the air as fast as the wind would take her. She wondered if Xanatos would shoot her on sight? After nearly exterminating the entire human race a few months ago, a plan of hers that would have killed not only Xanatos and his family, but hers as well. She suddenly realised that if she had succeeded, she would have murdered her daughter and grandchildren as well.

Demona suddenly didn't feel that entire well. In fact, she wanted to throw up. She thought about how she could have conceded annihilating the human race. It was true that she had wanted to destroy humanity and as far as she was concerned, she still did. But she couldn't without murdering her own grandchildren in the process. Despite their new forms, she could see that they still had some of their human blood within them, which if she attempted to do the same trick twice then she would end up harming her own flesh and blood too. And that was something that she could not afford to do.

In the short time that she had, had her daughter and her grandchildren come live with her? She had felt the awful feeling of loneliness lift from her heart. If anything were to happen to them or if they left her, She didn't know what she would do? The thought of it terrified her!

Demona shuddered, but continued on her journey. Right now, her daughter was at home, worrying about her children and Demona couldn't stand to see her suffer as she had done for so many years. Not when there was something that she could do about it.

0000000000

Darlene dived from building to building to hide from her mother. She didn't want her seeing her, just yet. She suspected that her mother was hiding something from her and she obviously didn't want her finding out about it.

Darlene knew better than to try and seek information out of her mother. If anything, she sure was stubborn and probably wouldn't reveal anything even if someone tied her down and shoved red-hot pokers up her ass?

So she had decided to follow her and find out just what she was up to. Besides, for all she knew, her children might in danger and she wasn't going to sit on her ass at home and wait.

Something caught her ear's attention as she was gliding and she strained to hear, but couldn't make anything out. She decided that it must have been her imagination so she shrugged it off and continued her search for her children.

0000000000

_Are you positive? _

"Affirmative sir. There is a blue skinned female gargoyle, following another one that is heading towards the Eyrie building!" The Quarryman spoke into his microphone in a low voice, not because he had to keep quiet, because of his excitement.

_Follow them both and if they do reach the castle then that confirms everything that we've suspected about David Xanatos keeping the gargoyles safe in his building._

_Don't loose sight of them and if they do enter the castle then send word and… prepare to attack! _

The Quarrymen grinned and stated "understood. Over and out!" He put the microphone away and informed the pilot to continue their pursuit of the female monsters.

The Quarryman rubbed his hands together gleefully. He had longed for the day or night when he would meet a real living gargoyle and then have the chance to beat it into a bloody pulp.

It seemed now that his wish had been granted.

0000000000

Lana talked about how she and her brother and sister had been born human, but unknown to them. Their mother had in fact been a gargoyle from birth, or hatching as the correct term was? She explained how her mother had fallen in love with her father and was petrified of what her mother, Lana's grandmother, would do if she found out about them.

She noticed that the clan had grown quiet when she mentioned her grandmother's hatred of humans. She didn't know what it meant, but she had the distinct impression that they knew her. If they did then she decided to wait for them to ask her about her.

"Anyway, the spell that my mother used to make us all human seemed to be wearing off! So she decided to tell us the truth about what we were… I wish that she hadn't bothered."

The gargoyles looked a little uncomfortable with her attitude, but she didn't care. She had never wanted to be a gargoyle! She had been perfectly happy as a human and her mother had taken that away from her.

The little green one, Lexington, crouched and walked on all fours towards her. He made her feel a little uncomfortable, but she wasn't afraid. If these gargoyles had wanted to harm her then they would have already done so, but they hadn't.

He placed his paw on her hand and looked at her with his big eyes as wide as saucer cups "I'm sure your mother didn't do this to you deliberately? Sounds to me like she was just trying to tell you the truth about who and what she truly was. About who and what you truly are. She just never anticipated that this would happen?"

Lana shrugged, but didn't say anything.

"Goliath?"

Everyone turned around and Lana saw a man in an expensive looking black suit, with a goatee and a ponytail. She remembered seeing him on news at one time? As she recalled, he had been arrested for some damage to the city, but she couldn't remember his name?

"Hey" Jarred cried out "aren't you David Xanatos? The guy who was busted a couple of years ago?"

Lana frowned. Subtlety was not Jarred's strong point.

Xanatos eyed the boy with a raised eyebrow "and who might you be little fellow?"

Jarred glared at him "little? I'm not little, I'm your worst nightmare buddy!" Jarred growled at him and took on a fighting stance and then… tripped over his own tail.

Brooklyn burst out laughing "oh yeah! You're a real terror!"

Jarred grumbled and got back to his feet, narrowly missing another licking session with Bronx.

Xanatos smirked, but returned his attention to Goliath "Goliath? Demona is on her way here!"

There was a row of white lights that lit up among the clan including Goliath's "when?"

Lana's ears immediately perked up. Her grandmother was coming? Oh crap then that means that she and Jarred were in deep shit! She looked at her brother and saw him thinking what could only be the same conclusion.

Lana was so deep in her own self pity that she didn't notice the way that the clan was reacting to her grandmother's arrival. It was only when Brooklyn shouted that they needed to take action and prepare to give that 'bitch' a swift kick up in the ass that she noticed!

She stared at Brooklyn in amazement. What had her grandmother done to this strange gargoyle to make him want to hurt her so? Well, no matter what the reason? If he tried to harm her granny then she would be there to stop him. Her mother obviously cared about her mom a lot and Grandma hadn't been all that bad to her and her family. She had a bit of a temper, but she loved them, she could see that plainly enough in her eyes every time when she fussed over Gem or smiled at her or Jarred. Or when she spoke to her mother, Darlene laughed with her and cried.

Lana took another look at her brother and noticed that he was getting angry. Apparently, while she had been 'thinking'. The clan had started talking about their grandmother and saying bad things about her. Lana already knew about some of the bad things that she had done. Demona had told her daughter about her, trying to kill the entire human race and other things… etc and Darlene had told them.

Needless to say, Lana hadn't exactly been looking forward to meeting her long lost grandmother and she hadn't exactly been willing to give her the benefit of the doubt either. But over the short time that they had lived together, they had, sort of, bonded.

Lana could see that her grandma had some serious problems and she would suggest her going to see a shrink, but… how many shrinks were there that could help a thousand year old immortal business woman who turned into a gargoyle at night?

Not to mention that if grandma ever lost her temper then the shrink would be reduced to a bloody pulp.

"Why are you so angry with my… with this Demona?"

Goliath stared back at her "she used to be my mate and my second in command. Years ago, she made a pact with our enemies, which resulted in the deaths of most of our clan. We were the only few survivors. We managed to stay alive, thanks to a magic spell that encased us in stone whereas Demona became… immortal, again thanks to sorcery."

He looked out a nearby window as though he were waiting for her to come crashing through. "After we awoke from our stone sleep, Demona turned against us. That was a couple of years ago now and she has been trying to kill us and the rest of humanity ever since."

Lana felt her mouth go dry. 'Okay' she knew that her grandmother had tried to harm humanity, but she didn't know anything about these guys! Why would she go after her own clan? It just didn't make any sense?

Goliath turned to the clan "prepare for battle! Assemble yourselves on the battlements and be ready for anything. Under no circumstances is Demona to be underestimated!"

The gargoyles nodded and turned to walk out of the corridor. Lana and Jarred, turned to follow them out, but were stopped by Hudson. "Nay lad and lasses. The field of battle is no place for wee young ones like your selves."

Jarred turned dark blue. "I've had my fair share of experience on the battle field! You can ask any of the bullies at my school who have a black eye and a broken arm?"

Hudson raised an eye ridge, but didn't relent, "Nevertheless laddie. You're not going top side, at least not tonight."

Jarred looked as if he were about to explode with rage before Lana cut in "Jarred shut up!"

Jarred growled, low in his throat, but crossed his arms in a huff and sulked. Lana looked back to Hudson "If I may ask where my brother and sister and I may stay for now?"

Hudson extended his right arm and led the way down the corridor to a room with a large screen TV. "Stay here and ye will be safe."

Lana smiled and said 'thank you'. Once Hudson left, she shoved Gem into Jarred's arms and told him to take extra special care of her and be ready to leave at the first sign of danger.

Jarred looked, questioningly, at her?

Lana said, "I can't risk them hurting grandma. Maybe I won't have to, but if I do then I may have to fight them. God, I hope that I don't because something tells me that I wouldn't stand a chance with those guys. Especially the old one with the large sword and the huge lavender one with the bulging muscles! I think he must have muscles on his muscles, that one?"

Jarred hugged Gem closer to him as she started to stir. "Well, what am I supposed to do then? Sit here and baby-sit?"

Lana just answered simply, "yes," and left!

Jarred glared at her, behind her back and whispered, "Bitch!"

0000000000

Goliath and the rest of the clan came out of the castle doors and Goliath told them to take separate positions around the courtyard and battlements.

Angela sighed sadly, but did as she was told. To do otherwise would mean treason against the clan. 'Was this the way that it was always going to be' she though? Her mother plotting to destroy humanity, and the clan always being there to stop her?

She ran up to the battlements, with Broadway at her side and crouched behind them, waiting for the fighting to begin.

Brooklyn wanted to wait by Goliath's side when he approached Demona, but Goliath had _firmly_ told him that he was to wait by the battlements on the other side with Lexington. Brooklyn reluctantly agreed.

Hudson and Bronx were told to wait inside, behind the doors, in case Goliath needed him right away.

Goliath stood and waited for Demona to come. He did not have very long to wait as she soon came over the battlements and landed in the courtyard. She thinned her eyes at him as though he were an insect that needed to be squashed.

She marched up to him and looked him, right in the eye "Goliath" she greeted him.

"Demona" he replied "What are you doing here?"

Demona crossed her arms "as a matter of fact, I'm looking for someone. Three people actually."

Goliath cocked his head in interest "elaborate. Who are these beings whom you seek?"

Demona thinned her eyes at him again "that is none of your concern! Have you seen anyone tonight or not?"

Goliath sighed "I can't very well tell you if I have seen anyone or not if I don't know what they look like, can I?"

Demona snarled at him "They're gargoyles. That's all you need to know! Three young gargoyles! One of them is a young female whom I'm sure will get BROOKLYN'S attention before long?" She purposely shouted Brooklyn's name.

Goliath did not have to wait long before he heard Brooklyn's angry snarl come from his hiding place and spun to his left to hold up a warning talon before Brooklyn did something that he would soon regret. Brooklyn's anger had a way of controlling him because every time he encountered Demona, he would fight her and always end up on the receiving end when she beat the crap out of him.

Brooklyn growled low in his throat as Goliath gave him a hard look, but complied and moved back.

"Speaking of which," she said, "you might as well all come out of your hiding places now. You seem to have lost the element of surprise here."

There was nothing for a few moments, but eventually, everyone decided that there was no need for him or her to be hiding anymore. So they all came out into the open and glared at Demona except for Angela who only looked at Demona with a sad and pitying look.

Demona met her gaze for an instant, but quickly turned away and looked back to Goliath. "Well?"

Goliath returned her stare "well what?"

Demona's growl got louder with anger "have you seen those strangers that I told you about or not?"

"If we had then do you think we would tell you about them, you psycho!" Brooklyn shouted and Goliath mentally cursed him and vowed to have a long talk with him about his temper when all of this was over.

Surprisingly, Demona did not growl or snarl or anything in response to Brooklyn's out cry. She just raised her eye ridges and said "no. I don't suppose you would." She then made an attempt to move past Goliath before he held up his arm to intercept her.

"Where do you think your going" he asked her?

Demona eyes flared red at him "if you will not tell me what I need to know then I will just have to simply search this castle from top to bottom then, won't I?"

Brooklyn roared and leapt at her.

Demona spun around at the sound of his roar, caught him in mid air and threw him across the courtyard. "It would seem your second in command needs lessons in discipline Goliath" she smirked.

Goliath remained non-passive "he is not the only one Demona."

Demona eyes flared red at that again, but didn't attack. She tried to move around him, but Goliath wouldn't let her pass him.

"Although Brooklyn needs work on his diplomacy" Goliath said "he was correct in assuming that we could not allow to search our home Demona. You are no longer a member nor even an ally of this clan, therefore we can not allow you to enter."

Demona didn't flare her eyes or shout or anything. She just stood there with an expressionless look on her face "I see."

She turned around to leave, but then… she practically swung around and hit Goliath at full force with her right fist.

"Aargh!" Goliath cried as he fell onto his backside and already felt his face swelling up.

The other clan members saw and heard their leaders distress and immediately went into action. Broadway ran on all fours at full speed, planning to ram into her. Unfortunately, what with his great weight, it made it easy to hear his approach. Demona heard him and saw him coming and leapt, doing a perfect 3/60 turn in the air, before landing on his back and kicking his head, knocking him unconscious.

Angela roared when she saw what Demona did to her mate. Although, she loved and cared for her mother, a great deal. She loved Broadway with all her heart and soul and wouldn't stand by and let someone, anyone harm him.

She roared and charged at her mother. Hey eyes filled with tears, but ones that you could not see, thanks to the red glow of them.

Demona saw her daughter coming, but didn't attack her. She sidestepped to avoid coming into contact with Angela, but Angela was too clever for that and adjusted easily. She knocked Demona onto her back with a high kick and stepped back as Hudson and Brooklyn came up to hold her down.

Goliath stood up and waited for the inevitable when she would attack and he would be forced to attack her yet again. Bronx stood, growling, at his side, ready for anything and to do anything to protect his castle and his masters.

Demona sensing their movements, jumped to her feet and snarled at them, her battle instincts kicking in. Hudson held his sword before him and twirled it around in his paw, testing his reflexes while Brooklyn just glared at her with pure hatred in his roaring white eyes.

"STOP!"

Demona paused at the sound of her granddaughter's voice and turned to see all her grandchildren standing in the castle doorway.

Lana stared at them with shock and took in her grandmother's appearance from her recent battle. Her hair was in disarray and she had a bruise on the left side of her eye. The others looked worse as Broadway lay, face down, in the dirt with a pair of claw marks in his back.

"Lana?" Demona asked "are you all right?"

"Yes grandmother, I'm fine!"

"GRANDMOTHER!" Several loud voices could be heard all across the courtyard. Hudson had actually dropped his sword in shock as he stared at them. Angela just stood with a gobsmacked look on her face along with the rest of them.

Lana, nervously, rubbed her arm and cautiously stepped up to stand by Demona's side and check her over. Aside from the bruised cheek, Demona seemed fine. In fact, her wound was already healing right before her eyes.

She watched with amazement as the swelling went instantly down and its dark colour faded back into her usual azure skin. 'What I wouldn't give if I could do that!' Lana thought.

Demona shook her head, a couple of times to get all the spots out of her eyes and smiled at Lana. "Hello dear. Met the clan have you?"

Jarred went into hyper drive " yeah, its real brill here Gran! You should see all the neat stuff they have here! They have swords like you and an enormous television, a huge blue coloured dog that makes Cujo look like a puppy and…"

Lana wrapped her fingers over Jarred's mouth "quit while your alive short stuff! Or I'll quit it for you!"

"Mmmmm…?" Jarred mumbled.

Demona's gaze went back to the crowd of startled gargoyles in the courtyard.

Broadway was finally waking up, with Angela helping him up. He looked confused at what was going on and looked to Angela for confirmation, but she just simply shrugged.

Goliath strode over to Demona and Lana and actually grabbed both of their arms and pulled them together. He stared at the two of them and finally noticed the undeniable resemblance between them. He looked at Demona "this… is your granddaughter?"

Demona smiled "yes Goliath. Hard to imagine isn't it?"

Goliath just looked at Lana again and then turned to stare at Jarred and Gem who were petting Bronx while he nuzzled them without taking his eyes off Demona. The resemblance was there with them as well.

Hudson, meanwhile, felt like kicking himself in the head and in the backside over and over again repeatedly. How could he have been so stupid? He had helped raise Demona since the night she was hatched, he knew every inch of her body when he had bathed her as a hatchling and every detail of her face. Yet, when the time came, he hadn't been able to even notice the remote resemblance between her and her granddaughter. He had seen it, plain enough, with Angela, but Goliath had announced her as his daughter before she had even stepped into the light.

Angela slowly walked up to her mother and her now apparent nieces and nephew! "Mother? If what you say is true then… that makes these children, my nephew and nieces?"

"Correct" Demona replied.

"But… if they are my nieces and nephews then that means that… I have another sibling?"

Demona nodded "you have a half sister. Her name is Darlene… and she's very worried about her children!" She glared at the children and made them cringe.

"We're sorry" Jarred whispered "we didn't mean to be out so late. We just wanted to go out for a glide and then we saw this castle waaay up here and so we… I guess, we sort of lost track of time?"

"WE?" Lana exclaimed!

Jarred smirked at her "hey, you knew the risk you were getting into when you chose to come with me!"

"Why you little…!"

"Lana!" A new voice came from up above, warning the young gargess.

Everyone turned up their heads and saw yet another new gargess drop out from the sky and landed right in front of Lana and Demona.

Jarred particularly did not look happy at this moment. He grinned sheepishly and waved his hand at the older female "hi mom."

Darlene frowned and walked over to take Gem from him. She fussed and cuddled the baby for a second and then looked toward the baffled and surrounding clan. "May I ask what's going on?"

Goliath bowed his head "I am Goliath, the leader of this clan! Who are you?"

Darlene's eyes widened in shock and shot her gaze straight towards Demona, whom at this moment was starting to look like, she wanted to be anywhere, but there.

"Goliath, as in thee Goliath from Wyvern?"

Goliath cocked his head "yes that is true. Who are you and how do you know of me and my clan?"

Darlene never took her eyes off Demona "mother… why didn't you…"

"MOTHER?" A loud chorus of voices came from all around yet again. Hudson looked like he wanted to sit down and Goliath couldn't blame him. He, himself, felt the need to sit down and nurse his now aching head.

Brooklyn looked enraged and glared at Lana with white-hot eyes "you're her granddaughter!" He stated, instead of asked and pointed at Demona.

Lana merely shrugged and said "yeah, so?"

"SO?" Brooklyn practically screamed "do you have any idea of the trouble she's caused for this clan as well as for the rest of humanity?"

Lana stepped behind her grandmother in fear. She decided then and there that she most certainly did NOT like this gargoyle. Brooklyn was too busy into his ravings to take any notice of her though as he started going into full-length detail about all the bad things that Demona had done to them, including himself.

"Brooklyn ENOUGH!" Goliath bellowed his deep booming voice making everyone wince and take a few steps backward. They knew better than to cross Goliath when he was in this mood.

Brooklyn stopped ranting and looked down, sheepishly, at his feet while muttering to himself.

Angela walked up to Darlene and stared at her, Lana, Jarred, Gem and Demona together. There was an undeniable resemblance between the lot of them. "You're… Demona's daughter?"

Darlene eyed the young one curiously "yes. Who are you?"

Angela looked to her mother, but only saw desperation and despair in her eyes "my name is Angela and… I guess that if your Demona's daughter then that makes me… your half sister!"

Darlene's eyes bulged as she looked at Angela like she was insane "hey look. I may have been away from home for a while, but I think I would have remembered my mother having another baby before I left."

Demona sighed and put her hand on her second daughter's shoulder "what she says is true daughter. Angela, this is your half sister Darlene and Darlene this is Angela, my first born child."

Darlene blinked at Demona and then back at Angela "you mean to tell me that this is my BIG sister, but… she's so… so big! How?"

"I had Angela back before I left my home at Wyvern. That was over a thousand years ago now."

"Mother, I know that your immortal and everything, but that doesn't explain how this girl whom you claim is my older sister can be here today after ten centuries?"

Demona moaned "I know and I promise I'll explain everything to you once we get home. Please, let's go?"

"Wait Demona!" Goliath's voice boomed as he stretched to his full height and crossed his arms. "I demand an explanation for this fiasco tonight? You claim that these people are your family and yet we have never seen any of them until tonight. Your so-called grandchildren broke into our home, followed by you and then you attacked us and injured my clan! I believe that after everything we have seen, done and suffered tonight, that we deserve an explanation for what has transpired also!"

Demona glared daggers at him, but refrained from attacking in front of her family. "I owe you nothing Goliath! So kindly shut up and let us leave in peace, unless of course you wish to fight?"

Goliath's eyes flared at Demona, but he did not say anything so Demona held out her arm to lead her family away. Darlene and the children paused for a moment to think through all that had just recently occurred, but decided to go with Demona, thinking that she would give them all an explanation later.

Angela on the other hand, wasn't so easily swayed "mother wait!"

Demona cursed under her breath, but turned around to face her first born. She should have known that Angela would never let her go that easily with so many unanswered questions.

"Mother! Who are these people? Why have we never seen them up till now?"

Demona gulped and looked at Darlene, but saw that she was just as curious as well. Taking a deep breath, Demona was about to speak when…

[BOOOMMM!]

The explosion hit the castle's high tower, exploding it into a thousand pieces as bits of granite flew down on them from the air.

"What the…?" Darlene shouted as she grabbed onto her children flung them to the ground to stay clear of the blast. She raised her head to see a helicopter fly by with a strange logon on it that looked like a Q, but with a hammer in it? "Who are they?"

"Quarrymen" Goliath growled and after quickly checking on all his clan to see if they were all right, he motioned for them to follow him.

"Who or what are the Quarrymen" Lana asked?

"Gargoyle hunters" Demona explained while glaring her red hued gaze at the helicopter. A glare that would send the greatest of warriors crying to their mothers.

Darlene looked up at the helicopter in shock. She knew about Gargoyle hunters to be sure. A gargoyle hunter had killed her father and her mother had never let her forget that. It was another reason why humans were a gargoyles natural enemy and why they should be avoided. At least, that was what her mother had taught her, but she had long since learned that it was not completely true. Yes, there would always be humans who feared and hated her kind, but there would also be good humans who would learn to co-operate and co-exist with them. Maybe even love them, like her dear departed Paul had done?

She watched as the strangers gathered themselves and got ready to fight. She watched her mother as she herded her children into the castle and looked ready to fight anyone, but not willing to help the strangers or leave her grandchildren. But she did seem concerned about the lavender female, Angela, whom apparently was her half sister.

After a long moment of wrestling with her conscious, Darlene finally swore to herself and bounded across the courtyard on all fours and scaled the wall.

"Darlene!" Her daughter Lana cried "where are you going?"

Darlene didn't look back, but she did answer "gargoyles protect! Your grandmother taught me that when she protected me, when I was young!"

The giant lavender male paused and looked at Demona with a raised eye ridge. Apparently, this was news to him because Darlene noticed that when she said the word 'protect' he had stared at her like that word and her mother didn't go together.

"Mom, you can't do this; you'll be… "

But Darlene, being the quick glider that she was and had always been, even as a hatchling soared off into the night sky with a crimson glow in her eyes.

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_"Eagle to Hawk! I'm in position and I can spot our quarry! Repeat, I can spot our quarry!" The quarryman spoke into his microphone and awaited his instructions. _

Soon, Jon castaway's voice spoke "_continue to advance. Destroy as many of the filthy buggers as you can see_!"

The quarryman grinned, "message received and understood! Over and out!" He looked over to the pilot as he grabbed and hoisted his laser cannon over his shoulder. "Fly us over the castle and get ready to haul ass when… "

He didn't get to finish his sentence as he felt the helicopter tilt and turn. He glared, furiously, at the pilot to let him know to take better care of his flying, but saw him gasping, in fear, out the window.

Curious, he took a look out of the window and gasped as he saw a female gargoyle holding onto their helicopter's tail. She would almost be considered beautiful if it weren't for her wings, tail and claws.

At first he thought she might be the demon, but remembered that Castaway had told them that the demon had flaming red hair, like a demon. This one was had sunny blonde hair.

"Pilot! Hold her steady" he shouted as he levelled his laser cannon at the gargess and prepared to shoot.

0000000000

"They're going to shoot her!" Lana screamed and got ready to jump and glide to her mother's rescue, but was stopped by her grandmother's intervention.

"Don't be so foolhardy Lana! Give your mother a chance and see what she can do!"

Lana stared at her grandmother in shock. "Give her a chance? To do what, get killed?"

Demona frowned "your mother really has ruined herself by living as a human hasn't she? There was a time when a situation like this would have meant nothing to her. Just watch and if she requires help then we will intervene."

Lana didn't know what to do? Her first instinct was to rush out and help her mother, but part of her was curious as to what her grandmother meant, so she decided to stay for the moment and watch.

She looked at the other gargoyles and saw them just as transfixed as she was. Goliath and staring at her mother with a look of concern and wonder and his second in command Brooklyn just looked at her with lust. 'Obviously this guy doesn't get out much' she thought.

After a few moments of weighing down the tail of the helicopter, her mother let go of it and fell. Lana stopped herself from crying out only to sigh in relief when she spread out her wings and glided back to the top.

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"Now I've got you!" The quarryman shouted gleefully and prepared to shoot.

Darlene gave him a look of almost pity and contempt. She hovered in the air for a few seconds before he finally fired the gun, then dove to the side, missing the shot by a mere couple of inches.

The shot did not go without damage though, as it was fired into the castle and brought down the tower. Darlene's eyes flared red as a hellish fury rose up from her lungs and she fixed the quarryman with a look of pure savagery that would have made her mother proud.

For the first time since becoming a quarryman, the quarryman felt fear.

Darlene's anger filled voice filled the air "no one and no one threatens my family, especially MY MOTHER AND CHILDREN!"

The Quarryman blanched and held the gun up for another try, but this time, the gargess swooped down below the chopper. He lost sight of her and immediately began scanning the air for any sign of her.

0000000000

Goliath looked ready to pounce as he saw the one called Darlene swoop down, below the chopper and cling onto its bottom.

"We must help her!" He said to his clan and made ready to leave.

"Don't bother, Goliath."

Goliath turned at the sound of his former mate's voice and watched her as she observed her daughter's efforts.

Demona's chest swelled with pride. "My daughter is fully capable of taking care of herself! She has been trained in the ways of the warrior and the mystical arts, so I'm confidant that she can take care of a couple of scruffy and pathetic humans!"

Angela had a hurtful and almost jealous look on her face when she heard her mother speak those words. Up till now, she had believed that she was the one light in her mother's life that brought out the one redeeming virtue in her. Now, it turned out that she had another light or four as it seemed. She looked at the beautiful female gargoyle that was now risking her life to save those she cared about and at the two young hatchlings and the younger pretty gargess, who gasped and blanched with fear as her mother fought the invaders.

'Am I even important to her anymore' she thought, miserably "do I mean anything to her anymore now that she has a new daughter and grandchildren?"

Demona turned and looked at her second born as though she had heard her very thoughts "daughter, are you all right?"

Angela, for one brief moment, thought 'she called me daughter!' "I, uh… I'm fine. I'm just a little confused about tonight and everything and I really would like an explanation mother? Even if you do not want to give it?"

Demona narrowed her eyes, but didn't glare at her. She guessed that Angela would want to know about these long lost relatives of hers, but she had hoped that she would have been able to avoid it.

Fortunately, the sounds of tearing metal and the explosion of a helicopter engine saved her. She looked back up to see Darlene, hanging into the bottom of the chopper with her talons, imbedded in its metallic fibre. The quarrymen inside were squealing like children as the chopper went out of control and started to come down.

"TAKE COVER!" Brooklyn yelled and dove out the way, followed by the rest of them.

The chopper did not do much damage, but it did enough as it crash-landed onto the castle yard.

"MOM!" Jarred screamed as he started to run, with Gem in his arms, to the crash site, but Hudson held out his arm and stopped him.

"Wait now laddie" Hudson said calmly "don't go running off until you know the full situation! Your mother maybe all right?" Even as he said these words, Hudson observed the area, looking for any signs of life except for the Quarrymen who were moaning and groaning.

"Looking for something in particular?" A voice spoke behind him.

"YAAH!" Hudson yelled in shock and looked behind him to see Darlene, smirking at him.

Hudson shook his head "lass, if there was ever any doubt that you were Demona's flesh and blood then there isn't any more! You be having the same cunning and trickery as she does!"

"Thanks… I think?"

At that moment, Xanatos came running out the castle entrance with his laser rifle. He spared Demona and the new gargoyles a surprise glance before looking over to the injured Quarrymen.

"Nicely done Goliath" he said "but couldn't you have done it without trashing the courtyard?"

Goliath raised his right eyeridge. "As much as I would like to take the credit, Xanatos. I was not responsible for this."

"Oh and then who, pray tell, was?"

Demona then marched forward, took Darlene's arm and raised it high "that would be my daughter Darlene, Xanatos!"

Xanatos raised both his eyebrows in surprise and looked, questioningly, at Goliath, but Goliath just raised his hands and shook his head in confusion.

"Well, it'll be a good idea if you all get out of sight, in your private rooms? My security guards are coming and I don't want them to see you as I'm sure you'll recall that neither of you had any good experiences with them and vice versa?"

Demona nodded. "Come along, Darlene! Bring the children and let's go!"

"Mother wait!" Angela cried out "I still want to know what's going on and who these people are?"

_"As do I?" _Goliath and Darlene said, simultaneously.

Demona cursed, under her breath, but meekly nodded and followed them through the castle doors.

0000000000

Demona had followed them into the Great Hall and started her story with how she met Darlene's father. She went into great detail, including explaining the way his sparkling blue eyes would look at her like he was searching her soul.

She noticed Goliath silently clenching and unclenching his fists. He was obviously jealous, but didn't say anything.

'Strange' Demona smirked 'even after all this time. He still has a crush on me!'

It never occurred to her that she had had 1000 years to get over Goliath and move on, whereas Goliath had only a mere few months. And even then, it still hurt him whenever he saw her and wondered about how their love had turned out so wrong and ended so badly?

Demona finished her story with a long sigh as she thought about her late mate who had died by the hunter's hands and left her daughter fatherless. Her last thought ending with a bitter hatred as her thoughts always ran back to those accursed hunters who had taken everything from her!

Angela got up from where she was sitting and walked over to Darlene. They looked at each other for a few moments before Darlene finally said, "well, I guess that really does make us sisters then?"

Angela smiled and surprised everyone by grabbing Darlene and enveloping her into a bear hug.

Broadway got up and held out his hand to hers and shook it, his grin never leaving his face. "I guess with you being Angela's sister" he said "then that makes me your brother in law?"

Darlene grinned and looked at her son "you hear that Jarred? It looks like you've finally got your wish! It'll be good for Jarred to have a uncle then maybe he can start learning to listen once in a while?"

Broadway's face lit up and smiled at Jarred. Whereas Jarred groaned, but smiled back at him. In truth, Jarred would have much preferred someone like the fun loving Brooklyn or the computer whiz Lexington instead of the fat blue slob whom couldn't stop eating.

Lana gave a small laugh and whispered to him "don't worry, I asked grandma about gargoyle traditions and it seems that all gargoyles are raised by the whole clan. So this mean that each of those three and Goliath are your uncles and Hudson, I suppose is our grandfather?" Jarred's face brightened instantly.

Lana looked back to the aqua male and lavender female and smiled "so… does this mean I have to start calling you uncle Broadway and Auntie Angie?"

"ANGELA!" Angela yelled.

Lana blinked at her, "ooookaaaaay. Sorry."

Angela grinned, sheepishly "I'm sorry. Let's just say that I've had a bit of a history with the name Angie." She glared at the three male gargoyles while they looked up to the ceiling and whistled, innocently.

Demona looked at them, puzzled "well, I believe we should be going now! Darlene, children?"

"No, wait" Goliath spoke.

Demona looked at him, questioningly. It was unlike Goliath to actually want her to stay? Usually, he couldn't wait to see her gone and out of his life again.

Goliath, however, wasn't even looking at her and seemed to be directing his attention at Darlene and her daughters. "Please, won't you stay with us for a little while? You could get to know your clan a bit before you leave?"

Demona thinned her eyes, suspiciously, at Goliath. It wasn't a surprise that he wanted her family to get to know the clan. After all, just because she was banished didn't mean that the rest of her family had to be? Plus, the clan needed all the members it could get; especially… then it dawned on her. Goliath was trying to play matchmaker with her granddaughter and Brooklyn or Lexington!

She didn't know whether to be pleased that he was accepting her family, regardless of her or angry that he was trying to set her granddaughter up with one male whom, no doubt, was the one who hated her, most, in the entire world!

Brooklyn, himself, seemed to be caught between glaring daggers at her, waiting for her to pull a fast one so that he could pounce on her, or throwing lustful looks at Lana?

Lexington didn't have any trouble deciding, which he would rather do? He didn't trust Demona, but he didn't bear the same vengeful hatred that Brooklyn did either. So he was keeping himself busy by looking at Lana and smiling, sweetly, at her, which made Lana, more than a little, nervous.

Demona groaned, inwardly, as she remembered how her rookery brothers had all made passes at her during their first breeder's moon. It had come to the point when she had practically snarled at her kin and threw them off the battlements whenever they even came close to her. The only one she hadn't gone off at was Goliath and that was because he was the largest of their kin and thus, too heavy to throw. He also seemed to be able to control himself better than the others. They had started talking and overtime, their relationship had grown and evolved into love.

Of course, although he was able to control himself during the first few months of the breeders moon, not even he could withstand the actual night itself! She remembered that glorious night when she had lost her virginity to Goliath and when her precious Angela had been conceived. It had been many centuries after that before she would ever experience another breeders moon and that was with Darlene's father.

"I don't think so," Darlene said. "If my mother wishes to go now then we must do so."

Goliath looked a little shocked, but didn't say anything that might have offended them. He looked to Demona and she gave him an all too familiar smug smirk.

Goliath narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't do anything.

Angela walked up to Demona and surprised everyone by wrapping her arms and wings around her and saying, "I'm glad to have seen you again tonight mother. I hope we'll be seeing each other again soon?"

Demona gulped and slowly raised her arms to hug her daughter back.

After the comforting moment was over and Angela departed from Demona's grasp. She walked over to Darlene and rubbed her hand over her brow as a sign of sisterhood "God speed sister. It is good to finally meet you, all of you." She then walked to Lana and did the same with her, but when she came to Jarred and Gem who was in his arms again, she gave them both a big wet kiss, which made Jarred grimace.

"Eeewwwww!"

Angela laughed along with the rest of the clan. It had been too long since any of them had seen a hatchling.

Demona took Gem from Jarred and lead the way out of the castle to the courtyard.

Brooklyn gave her a nasty glare as she left along with a smile at Lana. Goliath and Hudson just looked at her with what someone could almost call hope. Angela smiled at her mother whereas Broadway just smiled at Angela. As for Lexington, he was also giving Lana, what he thought and hoped was his best smile. Bronx tried to jump onto Jarred again to give him another lick to say goodbye, but Jarred, anticipating this, had sprinted over to one of the castle walls and scaled it to get away.

Bronx whined at Jarred's departing form and slowly made his way back to the clan. He had used to thoroughly enjoy playing with the gargoyle hatchlings and even some of the human children back at Wyvern in the old days. It had been many years since he had last seen a hatchling, so he had been very happy to see Jarred and Gem.

Hudson smiled at the huge monster hound and gave his ear a scratch and said, "Dinna worry, Bronx. I'm sure they'll be back to see us again soon!"

Bronx immediately perked up again and barked happily, his tail wagging and his tongue panting.

0000000000

"So I take it that there was a point as to why you didn't tell me that your mate Goliath, whom you told me so much about when I was growing up, had woken up?" Darlene asked as they glided home.

Demona groaned "Daughter, I am really am sorry that I didn't tell you straight away, but the truth is… I didn't want you to meet them. I was afraid that if you started to spend time with them then they would tell you things about me and make you hate me?"

Darlene gave a sigh of disgust "Mom, I could never hate you! I hate some of the things that I've heard you've done since I left, but not you! I could never hate you, even if I tried?"

Demona didn't have an answer for that, so she remained quiet.

"Can we go there again?" Jarred asked enthusiastically.

Darlene smiled "I don't see why not? They invited us back, didn't they?"

"Do we have to?" Lana asked fearfully.

Demona said "is something wrong Lana?"

"Not really. Except for the way that those two Brooklyn and Lexington were looking at me all the time. It made me uncomfortable."

"Oh, don't worry about that Lana! Goliath's clan are many things, but they're not rapists. I watched each of those two hatch and grow and they wouldn't hurt a fly. Whereas me on the other hand, they would probably beat into a bloody pulp?"

Darlene and her children all shuddered at Demona's last statement.

0000000000

"Man! Did you see the way that Lana checked me out?" Brooklyn boasted, loudly and ran a paw through his snowy white hair.

"YOU?" Lex cried out laughing "it was me she was checking out buster, not you!"

"Oh yeah, right short stuff!"

"Who are you calling short stuff, beck-face?"

"ENOUGH!" Goliath's voice bellowed.

The two of them, instantly, went silent and grumbled to the floor.

Goliath continued "no matter who she was… checking out? She is a person and she deserves to be treated as such! I don't want you to be repeating the same mistakes that you first made with Angela when she first got here! Is that understood?"

Brooklyn and Lex nodded, vigorously. Their first attempts at courting Angela had resulted in her getting angry with them and almost blew any chance for any of them having any luck with her. It had also endangered Elisa's life because while they had been so obsessed with courting Angela. Elisa had been counting on them to help in a turf war that had been going on between Tony Dracon and that Tomas Brode guy and they had been so intent on getting Angela that they had almost blew the entire case and got Elisa killed. Something that they still hadn't completely forgiven them selves for.

"I wonder if Demona has any other granddaughters?" Broadway wondered out loud.

Angela slapped his beefy arm in irritation, to which Broadway just looked at her in honest confusion. "What?"

**To Be Continued…**


End file.
